Jonathan Marchessault logged two goals and an assist and Brett Howden also scored twice as the Vegas Golden Knights powered to a 7-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night in Las Vegas to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla.
It was the third multi-goal game of the playoffs for Marchessault, who has scored 12 goals in 19 games in this year’s postseason.
Michael Amadio had a goal and an assist, Jack Eichel and Chandler Stephenson each had two assists and Alec Martinez and Nicolas Roy also scored for Vegas. Adin Hill finished with 29 saves.
Anton Lundell and Matthew Tkachuk scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled at the 7:10 mark of the second period after stopping just nine of 13 shots. Alex Lyon finished up and made 12 saves.
Vegas took a 1-0 lead at 7:05 of the first period on a power-play goal by Marchessault.
Martinez made it 2-0 at 17:59 of the opening period when he roofed a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot for his first goal of the playoffs.
Roy extended the lead early in the second period after picking up the puck in the left corner. Left uncovered, he skated in and rifled a wrist shot off the near post and in for his second goal of the playoffs.
Howden increased the lead to 4-0 at the 7:10 mark of the middle period. He broke down the slot and took a pass from Mark Stone and then backhanded a shot past Bobrovsky, who was then replaced by Lyon.
Eichel left the game briefly with 2:04 left in the second period after taking a thunderous shoulder-to-shoulder hit from Tkachuk near the blue line, with Eichel’s helmet going flying. Eichel got up and immediately skated to the locker room while grimacing in pain but returned for the start of the third period.
Florida cut the deficit to 4-1 just 14 seconds into the third period when Lundell’s shot caromed in off the shin guard of Martinez. But Marchessault, left wide open in the slot, scored his second goal of the night less than two minutes later off an assist from the left boards from Eichel, who was making his first shift back after taking the big hit.
Amadio increased the lead to 6-1 midway through the final period off a nice setup from William Karlsson.
Tkachuk scored his 10th goal of the playoffs a little over two minutes later to make it 6-2 when he snapped in a wrist shot from the left circle.
Howden finished the scoring, netting his second goal of the night with 2:08 left.
–Field Level Media
