Ice Hockey: Back Golden Knights to take a 2-0 lead over Panthers in NHL Stanley Cup Finals
- George Dempsey
- 5 June 2023
Vegas Golden Knights will look to extend their Stanley Cup Finals lead when they face Florida Panthers in game two at T-Mobile Arena.
After winning game one at T-Mobile Arena, 5-2, the Golden Knights will be confident they can take a commanding 2-0 lead on the road to South Florida with a game two victory in the Stanley Cup Finals.
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Panthers @ Golden Knights - Game Two verdict
Things didn't start so well for the boys from Sin City though. Vegas were unable to organise themselves for the first power play of the game and Eric Staal stole in to give the Panthers a lead.
As he so often does, Jonathan Marchessault came to the rescue to level the scores before the end of the first period. The sides would trade goals again in the second.
Tied 2-2 heading into the third, the greater depth and attacking quality started to show. The hosts found the net three times in the third quarter, with Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk being ejected for a punch.
The Panthers didn't show the defensive qualities needed in game one and to have taken the lead and still lost by a comfortable margin is a worrying sign.
We spoke in our previous preview about the importance of Sergio Bobrovsky, but his defence left him exposed and (ineffectively) spend a lot of time on the penalty kill, thus inviting pressure.
We also spoke about the various threats the Knights have and most of them played their part in game one. They already look like they can hurt Florida from a lot of different angles and it's hard to see how the Panthers slow them down.
Jack Eichel, Ivan Barbashev and Marchessault all scored or assisted in game one and behind their attacking play, we expect the Knights to record another comfortable victory. Back them to win and consider the -1.5 spread.
