Vegas Golden Knights one win away from Stanley Cup

Golden Knights take commanding 3-1 lead in Stanley Cup Final with 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.

SUNRISE, Fla., -- The Vegas Golden Knights are one win away from winning the Stanley Cup, following a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

Chandler Stephenson scored twice, while William Karlsson added the game-winner. Adin Hill made 29 saves in the victory.

“Today was a day I thought we would be very good,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I didn't know how Florida would be but I thought we'd be very good.”

The Golden Knights haven’t played a “bad” game this Final and it continued in Game 4. They were able to keep the Panthers to the outside and prevent them from getting scoring chances.

“We found a way to keep it out of our net. And I don't know if they had any Grade-A’s,” Cassidy said. “We threw a few towards the net, but I thought we did a good job clearing them.”

Stephenson’s early goal came just 99 seconds into the game, which took the air out of FLA Live early.

“I tried to just kind of make a quick play, not overthink it,” Stephenson said. “Just going in, I guess. I didn't really try to think too much about it. Just tried to get it off quick.”

Stephenson added a second goal in the second period and Karlsson followed up with a goal of his own to make it 3-0.

Things got interested after Brandon Montour’s shot bounced off two Golden Knights and past Hill late in the second period. Then the Panthers scored on a rare offensive look from Aleksander Barkov.

This set up the final 6-on-5 scenario that Vegas was poor in Game 3. As they have done all season, the Golden Knights learned from their mistakes and overcame a late flurry to leave Florida with a split and a commanding 3-1 advantage in the Stanley Cup Final.

“Guys just sold out,” Vegas forward Mark Stone said. “We did a great job at making sure we held the line pretty well. Chip pucks out when we needed to. We got we got clears and kept it to the outside to compact the net front.”

Stephenson’s early goals made all the difference in providing the spark for the Golden Knights early on.

“It’s pretty special feeling to score in the Stanley Cup Final,” Stephenson said.

The Golden Knights and Panthers will meet for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Vegas leads the best-of-seven series 3-1.

“There's going to be a lot of people in the ear when you're one game away about different things. So maybe you take a day and enjoy that or deal with that,” Cassidy said. “But when we get back on the ice on Monday, it's time to get back to work and back to business.”