Vegas Golden Knights kick off West's final series against the Dallas Stars, winning the first three games. The Knights could follow the path of the Florida Panthers and carry out the so-called «sweep» for the «stars», but the guys from Texas showed fangs and reduced the backlog to a minimum. By bringing the series back to Dallas, the Stars' heroic comeback no longer looked like a fantasy and was considered a very real scenario. But he was not destined to come true.
Either “Dallas” burned out emotionally, or they spent too much energy in the previous two meetings, but Peter Debour's wards came out completely disassembled for the decisive game of the season. “Vegas” immediately dealt a powerful blow, which sent the opponent into a deaf knockout. Already in the middle of the first period on the scoreboard arena “American Airlines Center” in Dallas burned 3-0 in favor of the guests. At the end of the fourth minute, William Carrier opened the scoring, and then William Karlsson and Keegan Kolesar scored another puck.
In the second period, “Dallas” made attempts to return to the game and even had the advantage in shots in a certain time period, but none of them and close did not lead to a scoring chance. Only once at the gates of “Vegas” there was a small fire, but the attackers “Stars” did not orient themselves in the episode and simply could not bring the case to a throw. But the “Golden Knights” with the implementation of everything was in order. In the middle of the match, Jonathan Marchesso scored a goal, and at the beginning of the third 20-minutes, William Karlsson scored a double. For him, this match turned into a kind of duel with Marchesseau: both fought face-to-face for the title of Vegas record holder in the number of goals scored in one playoff draw, and the Swedish striker won this status thanks to a double. Now he has 10 goals to his credit.
At the end of the meeting, Michael Amadio made me doubt whether they played hockey or tennis in Dallas. 6:0 — no one expected such mockery.
Now, the Florida Panthers have finally waited for their rival in the dispute for the Stanley Cup, and this final will be unique, because the NHL will determine a completely new champion. Either the Panthers or the Golden Knights—teams that reach their second Finals in franchise history but have never won a major trophy—will be the league's 21st winning club. Florida's first attempt to win the Stanley Cup happened back in 1996, when the Panthers lost to the Colorado Avalanche (0-4), and the Golden Knights climbed into the final of the tournament in their debut season in the NHL, but lost to the team of Alexander Ovechkin Washington Capitals (1-4).
We are also expecting a confrontation between the two best Russians of this playoff. Florida Flappers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will play in the Stanley Cup final for the first time in his career. In the current tournament, he surpasses all goalkeepers in the number of matches won (11) in the number of shots saved (471). Vegas has had a phenomenal season with Ivan Barbashev. The Russian striker, who was traded by the Knights from the St. Louis Blues, is the sole leader among all his compatriots in terms of goals (6), assists (9) and points scored (15).
In addition, Ivan can enter the elite club of Russian hockey players who managed to win the Stanley Cup twice. He first became an NHL champion in 2019 while still with the Blues. If he repeats this success with the Golden Knights, he will become the 15th Russian to win the Stanley Cup twice. Earlier among the players, Igor Larionov, Sergey Fedorov, Sergey Brylin, Evgeny Malkin, Sergey Zubov, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Sergey Nemchinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Oleg Tverdovsky, Pavel Datsyuk, Vyacheslav Voinov, Andrey Vasilevsky, Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev succeeded in this. Larionov, Fedorov, Brylin and Malkin have become NHL champions three times.
The first match of the series «Panthers» — «Golden Knights» will take place on the night of June 3-4, Moscow time. The game will take place at the Knights Arena in Nevada.
PollWho will win the 2023 Stanley Cup
Vegas Golden Knights Ivan Barbashev12.6%Florida Panthers Sergey Bobrovsky87.4% VoteVote:366May 30, 06:40