Vegas Golden Knights blow out Florida Panthers 7-2

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As the crowd of 18,561 fans chanted "We Want The Cup" at T-Mobile Arena Monday night, the Vegas Golden Knights celebrated a blowout win over the Florida Panthers. The final score of this one 7-2.

Vegas now leads Florida two games to none in the best-of-seven-series. Games now shift to Florida who will host Game 3 and Game 4 in Sunrise at FLA Live Arena. Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday. This is how Game 2 shook out.

PREGAME

The Golden Knights looked to improve heading into Game 2 as head coach Bruce Cassidy and several players said they didn't play their best even though they managed to win Game 1.

"We know they'll want to bring a better game but we do too. We don't think we were at our best and that's typical of Game 1's," Cassidy said. "We want to put them on their heels if we can. It's tough to do with this team. At the end of the day, if we can do that and get the ice tilted our way, that's what we want."

There were several key moments in Game 1 including Shea Theodore's first goal of the playoffs, Adin Hill's viral save, and a scuffle that saw Nic Hague get punched by Matthew Tkachuk. Emotional maturity and knowing when to let things go is one key to the Knights' success. The Golden Knights finished the regular season with the fewest penalty minutes in the league (599) and was the only team that took fewer penalties per 60 minutes.

When asked about the incident before the game, Hague said it's "all part of the game."

"We have to try and manage that especially as the series go on," Hague said. "Just keep our cool. Keep our emotions and just focus on the bigger picture and the task at hand."

FIRST PERIOD

The Golden Knights came out aggressively with two shots on goal to start the period but neither one was able to get past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Things got physical seven minutes in with three hits including one by Ivan Barbashev against Radko Gudas. The Florida Panthers later said Gudas would not return for the rest of the game.

However, it was Florida that was penalized with Ryan Lomberg getting two minutes in the box due to cross-checking against Jonathan Marchessault. That led to Vegas' first power play of the night and Jonathan Marchessault was able to find the back of the net. That was his ninth goal in the last nine games. He has also scored 11 this post-season, which is a team high. According to the Associated Press, those goals have been since the start of the second round and the last player to score more goals after the first round of playoffs was Pavel Bure with 13 for the Canucks in 1994.

Chandler Stephenson and Jack Eichel both picked up assists on the play. It was Stephenson's eighth and Eichel's 15th. According to the Golden Knights, that also meant Vegas had power-play goals in three straight games for the first time since Christmas, Dec. 21 through Dec. 27.

With just 2:01 left in the first period, it was Alec Martinez's turn to score. He got the pass from Ivan Barbashev to find the back of the net as the puck sailed over the head of Bobrovsky. When it comes to scoring this postseason, 18 different Golden Knights have scored, which is tied with the Seattle Kraken for the most in the NHL. That would end up being the last goal of the period with Vegas heading to the locker room up 2-0.

SECOND PERIOD

Less than three minutes into the second, it was Nic Roy's turn to join the scoring party. He was able to get the shot underneath Casey Fitzgerald and Bobrovsky didn't move because it didn't look like he could see the puck. With that goal, Vegas has scored more goals on Bobrovksy than the Carolina Hurricanes did in the entire Eastern Conference Final.

Vegas tacked on another goal at 7:10 thanks to a solid sequence of events as Mark Stone lost his stick, got a new stick on the fly, and was able to feed Brett Howden for that goal. With that, Florida pulled Bobrovsky from the net. According to the NHL, Bobrovsky allowed six goals on 174 shots in four games against the Hurricanes. When facing the Golden Knights, he allowed eight goals on 46 shots in less than two games. The Panthers then brought in goaltender Alex Lyon.

With 2:04 left in the second period, Matthew Tkachuk crushed Jack Eichel in open ice, which prompted a brawl on the ice. Eichel's helmet flew off and he limped off the ice and down the tunnel to the locker room. Alex Pietrangelo and Gustav Forsling were each given roughing penalties. Tkachuk and Barbashev got 10-minute misconduct penalties. Barbashev was also given a two-minute penalty for roughing. The second period wrapped up with VGK up 4-0.

At the end of the second, DraftKings also updated the betting line for who will win the Stanley Cup with the current odds at Florida +400, Vegas -500.

THIRD PERIOD

Jack Eichel was back on the Golden Knights bench to start the third period.

Florida looked to avoid the shutout and just 14 seconds into the third period, Anthony Duclair stole the puck from Alec Martinez and bounced it off of his skate into the Golden Knights' net to make it 4-1.

However, Vegas got that goal back a few minutes later. Eichel came off the bench and fed Marchessault who ripped one past Lyon extending the Golden Knights lead to 5-1. With the assist, Eichel became the seventh player in NHL's modern era, since the 1943-1944 season, to record multiple points in each of his first two games in the Stanley Cup Final. His 22 playoff points also match Reilly Smith for the most by a Golden Knight in a playoff season.

Former VGK player and current Detroit Red Wing David Perron even celebrated on social media weighing in on who he thinks should win the Conn Smythe award, which is given to the team's Most Valuable Player during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

However, Vegas wasn't done scoring. At 11:32, William Karlsson got the rebound and found Michael Amadio who got the puck through the back door for an easy goal and extended the Golden Knights lead to 6-1. VGK's nine goal scorers through the first two games of a Stanley Cup Final are the most by a team in NHL history.

Florida wasn't done fighting. With 7:16 left to go, Tkachuk was able to take advantage of a puck rebounding to him which he hit home to cut the Vegas lead to 6-2. Moments later, referees gave Tkachuk another misconduct penalty, his third of the series, for 10 minutes, which meant he was done for the night. Moments later Casey Fitgerald and Keegan Kolesar got 10-minute misconduct penalties and Duclair and Verhaeghe were also given two-minute penalties for the scrum. Eric Staal was also given a penalty for abuse of officials.

The Golden Knights added yet another goal with 2:08 to go. Howden scored his second goal of the night with assists from Amadio and Carrier. That would be the last goal of the night as VGK went ahead two games to nothing with the 7-2 win. Monday night's win meant the Golden Knights have gone 7-0 all-time at home against the Panthers including playoffs. According to the National Hockey League, teams with a 2-0 series lead in the a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final go on to hoist the Cup 90.6% of the time.