LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Vegas Golden Knights dug deep in order to hold off the Florida Panthers in a nail-biter Saturday night. Ultimately, Vegas came out on top 3-2 to go ahead 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.
The last two and a half minutes of the game were chaotic as Florida battled to tie the game up, even pulling goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to have an extra man on the ice.
"We faced a little adversity in the third period. They were coming at us but we made it through," said Alex Pietrangelo. "We weren't going to let [what happened last game] happen again. I felt like we dug deep in the two and a half minutes to hold them off. It would have been nice to close it out 3-0 but they have a good team too so you've got to find a way to win."
Pietrangelo was given a delay of game penalty with only 17 seconds left in the game to make it six-on-four. However, the Golden Knights defense was able to shut the Panthers down to secure the win.
"That was no fun when the puck went over the glass. That's a tough one for Pietro," said Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy. "He's just trying to do the right thing, get around, and clear hard but our guys came through."
"i think we just didn't want to lose," said Chandler Stephenson. "We wanted to push as hard as we could and try to take their fans out of it. I thought we did a lot of good things last game and wanted to have a killer instinct."
The Stanley Cup trophy will be at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night and Stephenson said emotions will be high.
"It's different. There's a lot more emotion, a lot more of everything," said Stephenson. We all know what's going to be there. I think the biggest thing is staying composed and just taking things shift-by-shift. I think everybody's going to be ready. It's just one win away from a lot of dreams for a lot of guys."
Cassidy said he knows it's something that's top of mind for the team but that everyone knows when it's time to get back to business.
"We've talked about the Stanley Cup and it's okay. There's no taboos," Cassidy said. "When we practice or when we play, it's time to think about how hard it's been to get here and now it's time to finish the job."
For Mark Stone, that means keeping the same mindset and not overthinking what they're doing on the ice.
"We've gotten here with a lot of guys buys in and leading the way. We've played incredible hockey along the stretch with plenty of guys who have been in this situation with a chance to close out the series," Stone said. "I don't think any of us really want to change anything. We understand the magnitude of the process but we're going to go home and take the game as if it's one game. We'll make minor adjustments to our game but we're going to continue to play our style of hockey."
Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final is set for Tuesday night. Both teams are returning to T-Mobile Arena and the puck is set to drop at 5 p.m.