The Vegas Golden Knights are off to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history after closing out the Western Conference finals with a 6–0 road victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 6 on Monday, May 29.
William Karlsson scored twice in a three-point game while William Carrier, Keegan Kolesar and Michael Amadio all collected one goal and one assist for Vegas, which won the best-of-seven series 4–2.
The Golden Knights will face the Florida Panthers in the finals beginning on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Jonathan Marchessault scored once, Reilly Smith had two assists and goalie Adin Hill made 23 saves to record his second playoff shutout for Vegas.
The Golden Knights lost to the Washington Capitals in the championship round in their inaugural 2017–18 season.
Vegas was also the Western Conference’s regular-season champions. Florida claimed the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
Jake Oettinger stopped 23 shots for the Stars, who lost the first three games of the series before winning twice in a comeback attempt that fell short and ended with a thud.
Dallas won both games without captain Jamie Benn in the lineup and lost all four with him, including the clinching contest after he returned from a two-game suspension.
Coming off those two losses, the Golden Knights were looking for a quick start to regain momentum. They received a jolt when Carrier opened the scoring at the 3:41 mark of the first period, taking advantage of a Dallas turnover for his second goal of the playoffs.
Karlsson doubled the lead on the power play just past the midway point of the first period when he converted a rebound.
Kolesar capped his team’s dominant first period by combining with Carrier on a two-on-two rush to net his first goal in 14 games with six minutes left in the frame.
Dallas showed life after the first intermission, but Marchessault tallied his ninth goal of the playoffs—all in the past 10 games—to make it a 4–0 game at 10:25 of the second period. The red-hot forward outraced a defender and converted a backhand set up by Ivan Barbashev.
Karlsson quashed any Dallas comeback hopes when he netted his 10th goal of the playoffs 2:06 into the third period, and Amadio rounded out the scoring at 12:25.
