The road to the Stanley Cup will go through Vegas, baby!
Jonathan Marchessault scored three goals to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-2 victory over the Oilers in Edmonton on Sunday night. Vegas wins the series 4-2 and now advances to the Western Conference finals.
Last nights’ game was exciting from start to finish with the Knights’ Reilly Smith scoring 30 seconds into the game to give Vegas an early 1-0 lead. Edmonton answered right back with two goals less than a minute apart to grab a 2-1 lead and the game was less than three minutes old.
Marchessault went to work in the second period for the Knights, tying the game at 2-2 with the first of his three goals. His next goal gave the Knights the lead at 3-2 and he completed his hat trick with 90 seconds to go in the period to give Vegas a 4-2 lead. William Karlsson added an empty net goal for the Knights and goalie Adin Hill was superb after the Oilers initial scoring flurry with 39 saves.
The Golden Knights now await the winner of the Dallas/Seattle series which is tied at three games apiece with game seven slated for tonight in Dallas. The Stars are coached by former Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer which would make for an interesting storyline should Dallas win that series.
It’s a fact now that the road to the championship will go through Vegas because the Boston Bruins of the Eastern Conference, who had the best record overall and would’ve had home ice advantage if it came down to a Vegas/Boston final, were eliminated in the first round. So if Vegas wins the West they’ll have home ice advantage in the finals.
This marks the Knights’ fourth trip to the Western Conference finals in six seasons. The schedule for the conference finals will be determined after the Dallas/Seattle game tonight.
For the first time ever…the road to the Stanley Cup goes through Vegas!