The Vegas Golden Knights are one win away from winning the Stanley Cup, with their 3-2 Game 4 victory over the Florida Panthers. Here’s what you need to know:
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
Stephenson quieted the raucous Florida crowd early with a nifty goal after Zach Whitecloud sprung him on a partial breakaway. Stephenson went with his usual move when in alone on a goalie, opened Sergei Bobrovsky up with a deke, and calmly slid the puck underneath his pads to open the scoring. He scored Vegas’ second goal too, one-timing a pass from Mark Stone top shelf. Prior to Saturday night, Stephenson was having a quiet series, yet to find the back of the net, but he picked a great time for a breakout. — Granger
Vegas has struggled to defend against the extra attacker with the opposing goalie pulled this postseason, already allowing four goals in those situations, but Saturday night the defense held strong. After watching a three-goal lead slip to only one, the Golden Knights closed the game out with strong defense in the final minutes. They defended the final 2:26, thanks to a couple of big saves by Adin Hill, to earn the win. — Granger
The Stanley Cup will be in the house for Tuesday’s game at T-Mobile Arena. Five years ago the trophy was handed out in a Game 5 in that same building, when the Golden Knights fell to the Capitals. Now they’ll have a chance to close out a championship themselves. The building is always electric, but the energy in Las Vegas will be the highest it’s ever been. — Granger
Matthew Tkachuk never left the bench but didn’t play for a 10-minute span of the third period. He returned with five minutes left almost like Paul Maurice was saving the banged-up star with the flair for the dramatic for another late heroic moment. Remember, Tkachuk was crushed by a Keegan Kolesar check on the left shoulder in the first period of Game 3.
He left the game because of concussion protocol and scored the tying goal to force overtime and an eventual win. However, if you watched him in warmups Saturday night, he didn’t shoot. So it’s unclear what happened and whether the Kolesar check was the cause, but he clearly wasn’t 100 percent going into the game. He finished with no points and three shots.
After Game 4, Tkachuk was not able to divulge what is going on with him physically and he couldn’t commit yet that he’ll be able to play Game 5. Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Tkachuk had to grind through Game 4 and they sat him to try to preserve what he had left. Maurice says with two days off they’ll assess his injury before Game 5. — Russo
Captain Barkov was alarmingly quiet during the first three games of the series. No points, just six shots on goal, which was surprising considering how good he has been this postseason, especially in a second-round win over the Maple Leafs. But Saturday night, Barkov buried Montour’s feed for his first goal of the series to pull the Panthers within a goal of a comeback from 3-0 down. Montour, who also scored in Game 3, finished with a goal and assist, but Florida could not draw closer. — Russo
One game after Vegas blocked 31 shots, the Golden Knights made life difficult for the Panthers again whenever they tried to get to the middle of the offensive zone. The Golden Knights finished with 30 blocked shots and the tough chugging was most notable in the first period. The Panthers had the puck it felt like the entire period and had a lot of shot attempts but could not get to the middle and had nothing to show for it. — Russo
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
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