Mark Stone’s Heroic Insurance Goal Puts The Golden Knights In Front By Leading 1:0 At The Stanley Cup Final Against The Panthers

The Chief08 mins
Mark stone

What a fantastic Stanley Cup Final opener we got here! holly smoke!!. And even though the Golden Knights pretty much took over in the final period, Game 1 could pretty much go either way for the hosts. Between all the overtime winners Matthew Tkachuk has scored this postseason for Florida and how well the Panthers have fought in order to reach this point, it felt like an equalizer and the eventual extra period was inevitable, and around all that dramatic tension at the Arena, it was the undisputed Knights’ captain Mark Stone who put the Ps to bed on Saturday night with a truly all-world display of quick thinking, game reading along with precision to beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a world-class finish


Following a tense challenge break in which it could’ve been construed that Stone’s initial play on the puck was a high stick, the goal was upheld because Stone crouched when he raised his wood. it wasn’t deemed a high stick so it was a good call by the refs.

Now we cannot point out the actual GWG by Zach Whitecloud, which was a testament to the fantastic forechecking display the home team put on in the final 20 minutes. Florida had a chance to clear the zone but couldn’t due to how relentless Vegas was on the attack from behind the cage. The puck ultimately came out to Whitecloud at the point, and he did not miss:

Data says it might as well have been a wrap after that.

Quite impressive to make that comeback off the second intermission for the Vegas Golden Knights. Having outscored opponents 25-8 in the 2nd period over these Stanley Cup playoffs, they were sitting pretty late in the second. That is until a set-play snipe by Anthony Duclair equalizes the score with only about 10 secs before the second stanza horn. Tough luck on the deflection for the Knights for sure.
I literally missed that moment when I looked down at my laptop and somehow when TNT ran the replay I managed to miss that too and it took me until the third look at the goal before I even saw Duclair’s shot. This is how quickly he popped that one off not to mention the goal-scoring which was pretty sick on its own.

Had to be the greatest stick save of all time. Maybe I’m forgetting some Dominik Hasek ridiculousness from back in the day. Nothing springs to mind. Fire off in the comments about it if you’re offended. Hill made 25 stops on the evening, including a late save when the Panthers got a shorthanded chance. Hell of an effort.
Anyway, congrats to the unbelievable, great team story that is the Vegas Golden Knights, and the way they’re killing it in the NHL so early in their history the way they do the NHL is mind blowing especially when they are only 3 wins away from taking the Stanley Cup to Vegas.

All the Knights need is one off night from Vegas and a little agitation from Rat King Tkachuk to put the Panthers right back in this and tie it up at one heading back to the Sunshine State. 

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