(Paradise) Zach Whitecloud had the game-changing goal at 6:59 in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Saturday, kicking off the Stanley Cup Final on the right foot.
The 26-year-old Manitoban broke the tie with a low wrist shot, whose speed seemed a little reduced by Carter Verhaeghe’s intervention.
Mark Stone added an insurance goal at 13:41, after intercepting a deadlift pass from Matthew Tkachuk.
Reilly Smith completed in an empty net with 1:45 on the clock.
Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore were the other scorers for the Knights, who benefited from 32 saves from Adin Hill.
Eric Staal and Anthony Duclair replied, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots.
Game 2 will premiere Monday night, once again at T-Mobile Arena.
Duclair scored from the left circle with 10.2 seconds left in the second period, tying the odds 2-2.
He released immediately after a face-off won by Aleksander Barkov. About ten seconds earlier, their teammate Brandon Montour had hit the post with a slap shot.
The other goal of the second period came from Theodore, in the middle of the engagement. He hit the target with a wrist shot at 10:54.
In net lurked Brett Howden, who had been frustrated in a brief breakaway early in the game.
Goals from Staal and Marchessault had made it 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Staal scored shorthanded at 9:40.
Marchessault answered at 17:18, on the power play.
Disputing a 100e game in the playoffs, Staal scored by going around the net, following a pass from Anton Lundell.
The streak started when the Knights fumbled on the blue line after William Karlsson retired to the bench for breaking his stick, attempting a slap shot.
The response was set in motion by a breakthrough in the opposing zone of Theodore. He handed over to the right flank to Chandler Stephenson, who sent in the pocket to Marchessault.
Soon after, Ivan Barbashev came close to giving the Golden Knights a priority goal, trying to score similarly to Staal.
About three minutes before Staal’s goal, Lundell had been threatening in the crease, following hard work from Ryan Lomberg (a check against Nicolas Hague and a stick-end pass to Lundell, within a matter of seconds).
In their only previous appearance in the Finals, in 1996, the Panthers were swept by the Colorado Avalanche.
The Knights concluded their inaugural season by going to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2018. However, Washington won in five games.