Vegas Golden Knights win Stanley Cup after just six years in NHL

The Stanley Cup is going to Las Vegas.

Just six years after entering the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights have captured hockey’s biggest prize. They did so with a dominant 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.

On a night that he scored a hat trick, Golden Knights captain Mark Stone took the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and lifted high above his head.

MARK STONE = STANLEY CUP CHAMPION. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/24BMa8dfVl

— NHL (@NHL) June 14, 2023

Stone and Nicolas Hague scored first-period goals for the Golden Knights, before Aaron Ekblad answered for Florida early in the second. Vegas blew the game wide open in the second half of the second period, with goals from Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Stone, and Michael Amadio — giving them a 6-1 lead heading into the third period.

Stone completed the hat trick with an empty netter in the third period. Ivan Barbashev (Vegas), Nicolas Roy (Vegas), Sam Reinhart (Florida), and Sam Bennett (Florida) also scored third-period goals, but the result was never in doubt in the final 20 minutes.

Jonathan Marchessault was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player in the playoffs. Marchessault tied for the league lead in playoff goals (13) and ranked second in points (25), behind his teammate Eichel.

An original Golden Knights player, it was the Panthers who gave up Marchessault to Vegas in the expansion draft in 2017.

Vegas lost just six games during their Stanley Cup run, which also included series victories over the Winnipeg Jets (5 games), Edmonton Oilers (6 games), and Dallas Stars (6 games).

Patience is a virtue 😉@GoldenKnights | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/hzk8E2Go48

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 13, 2023

The championship win fulfills Golden Knights owner Bill Foley’s prediction in 2017, before his team had ever played a single game.

“Playoffs in three (seasons), Stanley Cup in six, period,” Foley said then. “No excuses, that’s the standard.”

It was a laughable prediction to many at the time, but nobody is laughing now.

Vegas not only made the playoffs within their first three seasons, they made the playoffs in each of their first three seasons, and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in year one. Six members of that inaugural team, nicknamed the “Golden Misfits,” will now get their names on the Stanley Cup.

And they’ll soon get to celebrate the championship win with a Stanley Cup parade, likely on the Vegas Strip.

More to come…

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