Category: Florida Panthers

LAS VEGAS — First, the Florida Panthers got the bad news Tuesday that their emotional and scoring leader, Matthew Tkachuk, would miss Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final due to injury with their season on the line. Then came worse news: The Vegas Golden Knights weren’t missing anything. Not scoring chances. Certainly not the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup and to, “give Vegas the biggest party it’s ever had,” as their armored knight mascot screamed after the second period. Vegas beat the Panthers 9-3 Tuesday night to take this series 4-1. Vegas got its first championship for a pro team and ended...

SUNRISE — There were no late-game heroics for the Panthers on Saturday night, and now their season hangs in the balance. Two days after goals from Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe gave Florida hope, Vegas put the Stanley Cup nearly out of reach with a 3-2 victory at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise. The Golden Knights now lead the Stanley Cup Final three games to one, with the series headed back to Las Vegas. Vegas got on the board early. Golden Knights center Chandler Stephenson, got behind Florida’s defense for a short breakaway, flicking a wrist shot past Sergei Bobrovsky less than two minutes...

LAS VEGAS — As the Florida Panthers made their eight-seeded run to the Stanley Cup Final, the three prime factors were Sergei Bobrovsky’s goaltending, Matthew Tkachuk’s dramatic scoring and healthy special-teams play. All three were missing in the desert again in Game 2  of the Final as Vegas routed the Panthers, 7-2, Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Bobrovsky was replaced in the second period, Vegas is feasting on power plays and, while Tkachuk did score Monday, it was in a 6-1 game with no celebration. Tkachuk’s presence was felt more by a resounding and legal check...

LAS VEGAS — The Stanley Cup Final started with lasers and fireworks, decibel-deafening music and boom-boom sound effects, all in a technologically entertaining pre-game package off the Vegas Strip right down to Michael Buffer’s “Let’s get ready to rumble” throwback cheer. And then the show started. And they did rumble, and tumble, all the way until the Vegas Golden Knights took over a tie game in the third period Saturday night for a 5-2 win in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. It was physical, sometimes breathtakingly brutal, start to the Final as each team tried to mark its territory in...