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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Get ready Las Vegas for possible history Tuesday.
Mike Bolt, the keeper of the Stanley Cup, will be bringing the famed trophy into T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with the Vegas Golden Knights a mere game away from winning a National Hockey League championship.
A crazy scramble and chaotic ending to Game 3 in South Florida Saturday resulted in Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill’s left leg blocking a last second shot from Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk to preserve VGK’s hard-fought 3-2 win over the gritty Florida Panthers.
The Knights now lead the Cup’s Best-of-7 Final three games to one and the six-year-old franchise is poised to hoist the Cup with a win in Las Vegas in three days.
“A little more nerves when you know the Cup is in the building,” said VGK center Chandler Stephenson, who scored the game’s first two goals.
“Hopefully it’s an electric factory,” Stephenson said of the mood in the arena for Game 5 Tuesday. “The emotions will be high.”
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They filled a minor league baseball stadium and yelled with pride watching their hockey team 2,500 miles away take care of business in Game 4.
Only 39 seconds into the game and with fans still looking to find seats at Las Vegas Ballpark in suburban Summerlin, Stephenson skated in and unleashed the puck past Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
In the second period, Stephenson, who was on the Washington Capitals team that clinched their Stanley Cup in Las Vegas in 2018, scored again.
He took a pass from VGK linemate Mark Stone and fired a shot past Bobrovski.
The Knights took a 3-0 lead on a goal by William Karlsson later in the period, quieting the giant crowd of 19,986.
Florida cut into the deficit with a goal by Brandon Montour that bounced off to VGK defensemen before it pinballed past VGK goalie Adin Hill.
In the third period, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov scored and the Knights faced 15 minutes of hockey to try and hold onto a lead.
The Panthers never gave up. The team with 10 one-goal wins in the playoffs, including a perfect seven-for-seven in overtimes, nearly knotted the score in the final seconds.
But the Golden Knights preserved their lead.
“Matthew has been a grinder his whole life,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk’s gritty style of dealing with an injury. It looked like Tkachuk was playing with only one arm after he took a hard check from VGK forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3 two nights ago. Tkachuk played less than 17 minutes tonight.
Final in Game 4 in Sunrise, Florida: Knights 3 Panthers 2