With regulation time winding down, and with Alex Pietrangelo in the sin bin for a delay of game penalty, the Florida Panthers fired all shorts of shots on the 6-on-4.
The Vegas Golden Knights held their ground, and a melee ensued right afterwards.
Helmets, gloves, sticks, and plastic rats were all over the ice, but all that fighting and scrappiness did not change the end result.
The Golden Knights are now one win away from hoisting their first ever Stanley Cup.
They took Game 4, 3-2, fighting off many great chances, though it was Vegas' penalty kill that stood tall, with Zach Whitecloud blocking a one-timer from Sam Reinhart with his stick, and Adin Hill making two saves, the first on a one-timer by Carter Verhaeghe, and then stopping Matthew Tkachuk at the buzzer!
It was all sorts of pandemonium at the end of the game, with lots of pushing and shoving right after the match!
The Panthers were really pushing to force overtime for a second straight game, this time coming back from down 0-3 in the game!
The first goal came on a pinball shot from Brandon Montour late in the second period, firing a quick shot that went off the right skates of Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore, and right into the net!
That goal has Montour now with the 4th-most goals by a defenseman in a single postseason run since 1984, and what he has been doing in the postseason has added to what has been a historic season for the Panthers, especially when they were facing all the questions on how they would replace a puck-mover like MacKenzie Weegar when he was traded along with Jonathan Huberdeau to the Calgary Flames for Tkachuk.
The second was on a tic-tac-toe passing play, with Montour setting up the entry to Anton Lundell, Lundell goes right back to Montour, who makes a no-look pass to Sasha Barkov, and Barkov saw the tiniest of holes, squeezing it past Hill's left arm and the far post to make it a one-goal game!
Sergei Bobrovsky was keeping the Panthers afloat throughout the game, as he had 28 saves, but he got hung out to dry by the guys in front of him.
The three goals happened in part of a strong transition game by the Knights and a poor response to that by Florida. He has been really good throughout the postseason, but he can only do so much.
Hill, on the other side, made 29 stops and held on for his 10th win of the postseason, the most by any goaltender that did not make a single start in the first round.
He's certainly going to get a pay raise the next season, as he, alongside Ivan Barbashev, another noted playoff performer for the Knights, are pending UFAs, along with pending RFA Brett Howden.
And some of the original Golden Misfits helped them take the penultimate step to getting to Lord Stanley's finest hardware, with Jonathan Marchessault getting the secondary helper on William Karlsson's goal that made it 3-0.
The assist was Marchessault's 24th point of the postseason, tying Matthew Tkachuk for the scoring lead.
The Knights showed that they are the more talented and more well-prepared team for the big stage. Chandler Stephenson, who was on the other side of the ice five years ago when he was a member of the Washington Capitals, scored twice in the match.
On the first goal, Stephenson catches the Panthers on a bad change when he zoomed right towards the net after receiving the entry feed from Zach Whitecloud, just after he walked behind the blue line waiting for Brett Howden to come out of the zone on a delayed offside.
The second goal was scored on a one-timer, as Mark Stone sticked the puck into the zone past several Panthers, and found the open Stephenson at the center point, firing the puck off the post and in.
Vegas benefited from a load of scoring depth in the postseason, and Stephenson's two goal night got him to 10 goals in the playoffs.
The fact that the three goals for the Knights came on the 5-on-5 were better for them, especially since they were held off the scoresheet at even strength in Game 3.
This Golden Knights team is one of the better 5-on-5 teams in the league, and contributions from their best guys, and not just the supporting cast, is what they had to do to match the Panthers' potent top six, and Stephenson is setting that tone.
Plus, the fact that Karlsson has returned to inaugural season form in the playoffs to the tune of 11 goals in 21 games, along with his defensive zone performances, could possibly give him down-ballot Conn Smythe Trophy votes.
The Knights went from having one of the more porous penalty killing units to one that has not conceded a Florida power play goal in 13 opportunities.
Karlsson has also been an active part in how the Knights played the five players who led the playoffs in points before the Stanley Cup Final started. He has been so crucial in holding all of Tkachuk, Leon Draisaitl, Roope Hintz, and Evan Bouchard without a point in 5-on-5 play.
Not to mention that the Knights blocked a total of 30 shots in Game 4, for a grand total of 67 combined blocked shots in the last three games, which included 31 in Game 3.
While the shots on goal were relatively even, the number of blocked shots that the Knights took were about the Panthers hustling to the puck, though Vegas was the better team in getting to the loose pucks and winning the races.
Tkachuk, on the other hand, doesn't look 100%.
He has been the heartbeat of the Panthers' Cinderella run, but that hit from Keegan Kolesar early in Game 3 might have been a series-changing hit.
Paul Maurice admitted that Tkachuk was pulled by the concussion spotter and had to clear protocol, later returning to the game, and hasn't looked the same ever since.
The numbers already weren't in Florida's favor, as teams that took a 2-0 series lead in the Finals are 48-5, and teams up 3-1 in a best-of-seven Finals are 36-37, with the only team that rallied from such a deficit being the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who had to come back from a 3-0 hole to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.
I would like to thank Prince Matalia and Sean Jarrett for helping me out throughout the broadcast with their input on the game. Thank you so much!
As I get back to calling the NBA Finals, I'll hand the mic back to my good friend John Ott in calling the Stanley Cup Final the rest of the way. Game 5 is this Tuesday on June 13th at 8:00 PM, he and Cooper Hopkins will have the call on Twitter Spaces! Follow them @JohnRyanOtt and @CooperHopkins for the coverage.
Scoring
VGK, 1:39 1st: Chandler Stephenson [9] (Zach Whitecloud [6] & Mark Stone [12]), EV, wrist shot, 1-0 VGK
VGK, 7:28 2nd: Chandler Stephenson [10] (Mark Stone [13] & Nic Hague [3]), EV, snap shot, 2-0 VGK
VGK, 11:04 2nd: William Karlsson [11] (Nic Hague [4] & Jonathan Marchessault [11]), EV, wrist shot, 3-0 VGK
FLA, 16:09 2nd: Brandon Montour [8] (Sasha Barkov [11]), EV, wrist shot, 3-1 VGK
FLA, 3:50 3rd: Sasha Barkov [5] (Brandon Montour [4] & Anton Lundell [8]), EV, snap shot, 3-2 VGK
Goaltending
VGK: Adin Hill—29/31, .935 save percentage
FLA: Sergei Bobrovsky—28/31, .903 save percentage
Penalties
FLA, 2:52 2nd: Marc Staal 2-minute minor, tripping Mark Stone
VGK, 19:42 3rd: Alex Pietrangelo 2-minute minor, delay of game for shooting puck towards netting in defensive end
FLA, 20:00 3rd: Matthew Tkachuk 2-minute minor, slashing Alex Pietrangelo
FLA, 20:00 3rd: Matthew Tkachuk 2-minute minor, unsportsmanlike conduct on Alex Pietrangelo
FLA, 20:00 3rd: Matthew Tkachuk 10-minute misconduct
FLA, 20:00 3rd: Brandon Montour 2-minute minor, charging towards Brayden McNabb
FLA, 20:00 3rd: Brandon Montour 10-minute misconduct
VGK, 20:00 3rd: Adin Hill 2-minute minor, unsportsmanlike conduct on Sam Reinhart
Team Stats
Shots: VGK 31, FLA 31
Faceoffs: VGK 31, FLA 36 (FLA 53.7% advantage)
Power Play: VGK 0/1 (0 shots), FLA 0/1 (1 shot)
PIM: VGK 4, FLA 28
Hits: VGK 32, FLA 21
Blocks: VGK 38, FLA 15
Giveaways: VGK 8, FLA 12
Takeaways: VGK 2, FLA 5
Three Stars
Third Star: Mark Stone
Second Star: Sasha Barkov
First Star: Chandler Stephenson
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