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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
DALLAS — The Vegas Golden Knights will face the Florida Panthers for the Stanley Cup after eliminating, and completely dominating, the Dallas Stars in a 6-0 victory on Monday evening in Recreation 6 of the Western Convention Remaining.
Vegas will host Recreation 1 of the Stanley Cup Remaining on Saturday evening.
The NHL is assured to have a franchise win its first ever Stanley Cup this postseason. It is the second journey to the Stanley Cup Remaining for each franchises, because the Knights performed for the Cup in 2018 and the Panthers again in 1996.
Middle William Karlsson scored twice and goalie Adin Hill made 23 saves within the Recreation 6 win, one of many extra lopsided video games of the 2023 playoffs.
The Stars have been eradicated after trailing the sequence 3-0 and rallying for 2 wins. Groups that take a three-games-to-none lead within the Stanley Cup Playoffs now have an all-time sequence report of 202-4. Groups that maintain that lead within the spherical earlier than the Cup Remaining at the moment are 48-0 all-time, with each the Golden Knights and Panthers including to that whole of their respective convention finals.
Vegas was annoyed after permitting the Stars again into the sequence with two straight losses and vowed to come back out in Recreation 6 with a greater effort. “Convey our greatest effort tonight, put all of it on the market and see the place it takes us,” captain Mark Stone mentioned earlier than the sport.
Recreation 6 began with a blistering tempo with the groups buying and selling probabilities. Vegas was capable of quiet the house crowd by putting first. Ahead Keegan Kolesar received a battle close to the tip boards, with the puck slowly sliding out to the slot. That is the place William Carrier discovered it, patiently ready out goaltender Jake Oettinger (23 saves) for his second objective of the playoffs at 3:41.
That marked the third straight sport in Dallas by which the Knights took a lead inside the first 5 minutes of the sport.
The Knights made it 2-0 at 10:25 of the primary interval on a power-play objective from William Karlsson. Stars defenseman Esa Lindell was whistled for delay of sport however earned some fashion factors for knocking the puck out of mid-air over the glass earlier than it might bounce into an open web behind Oettinger. Reilly Smith‘s go was deflected by Nicolas Roy over to Karlsson, whose shot from the left facet beat Oettinger.
Kolesar made it 3-0 thanks to a different sturdy play from the Vegas fourth line. Kolesar flipped the puck off the boards to Provider as he entered the Dallas zone. Kolesar sprinted previous a spinning Lindell and Provider discovered him alone in entrance of Oettinger for a fast shot. Kolesar’s second objective of the postseason got here on the 14-minute mark, leaving the Stars’ dwelling constructing in surprised silence and their coach Peter DeBoer gazing his bench, arms crossed.
Similar to in Recreation 3, the Golden Knights constructed a 3-0 on the street within the first interval.
The Stars received to their sport somewhat higher within the second, incomes an influence play simply 4:03 into the interval however have been unable to influence the scoreboard. Then at 10:25 of the second, Ivan Barbashev met a streaking Jonathan Marchessault who slid the puck by Oettinger for a 4-0 Vegas lead.
Karlsson struck once more at 2:06 of the third interval, his tenth objective of the playoffs. Michael Amadio scored his third of the playoffs at 12:25 because the rout continued.
Dallas entered the sport with the momentum of two straight victories and the return of captain Jamie Benn, who was suspended after Recreation 3 for cross-checking Vegas ahead Mark Stone within the face.
The Stars rallied across the idea of extending the sequence lengthy sufficient to have Benn return to the playoffs. They completed the sequence 0-4 with Benn within the lineup.
For the Golden Knights, who completed atop the Western Convention with 111 factors, the journey to the Remaining comes after the workforce used 5 completely different goaltenders this season, after final yr’s starter Robin Lehner had offseason surgical procedure.
Laurent Brossoit began all 5 video games of their sequence win over the Winnipeg Jets and the primary three video games of their sequence win over Edmonton. He suffered a lower-body harm in Recreation 3, resulting in the 27-year-old Hill taking on because the starter.
Hill posted two shutouts within the convention closing, in Recreation 3 and Recreation 6 at Dallas.