Stanley Cup Final, G2: Vegas Golden Knights 7, Florida Panthers 2

The good news for the Florida Panthers is Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final is Thursday in Sunrise. The bad news is the Vegas Golden Knights will be on joining them.

On Monday night, the Golden Knights continued what they started in the third period of Game 1 as they scored twice in both the first and second periods en route to a 7-2 win over the Panthers.

The Golden Knights now own a 2-0 lead in this best-of-7 series as they blew the Panthers out of their building.

Florida is 0-6 in Stanley Cup Final games and have never won in Las Vegas; to return to Nevada for Game 5, they need to win at least one in Sunrise.

The Panthers were chasing Game 2 from the start as Jonathan Marchessault continued his Revenge Tour — now in Year 6! — against his former team by scoring his second power play goal of the series at 7:05.

Marchessault ended up scoring twice in this one.

Down 1-0, the Panthers failed to do much of anything with the puck and were held without a shot on goal for over eight minutes as the Knights made it 2-0 at 17:59.

Playing without Radko Gudas following a huge hit to the head from Ivan Barbashev, the Panthers looked like a completely different team than the one which rolled past Toronto and Carolina.

Florida eventually gave up two more goals within the first 7:10 of the second and this one was done.

Sergei Bobrovsky (13 shots faced) was given a mercy pull as Alex Lyon took the net for the first time since starting Game 3 in Sunrise against Boston.

You cannot blame this mess on Bobrovsky.

It was an ugly night for the Panthers all the way around.

Adin Hill certainly helped with the mess.

When he isn’t swinging his stick at a Florida player — Nick Cousins in Game 1, Matthew Tkachuk on Monday — he has been all but unbeatable.

Florida had its best scoring chances on a power play just before Alec Martinez scored to make it 2-0, Hill stopping five shots.

All told, Hill made 26 saves on Monday night and has stopped 59 of 63 shots in this series.

Things got chippy, as expected, once Vegas took a 4-0 lead and a big hit from Tkachuk on a falling Jack Eichel led to a melee. Tkachuk and Barbashev ended up getting an in-game break due to their parts in it as the duo both got hit with a 10-minute misconduct.

Eichel did come out for the third period and fed Marchessault for his second goal of the night about 2 minutes after Anton Lundell scored to give the Panthers some semblance of life.

Tkachuk ended up scoring a goal off a big rebound — but was given the boot for good by with 5:59 remaining after a dustup near the net.

He now has three 10-minute misconducts in the opening two games of this series.

Casey Fitzgerald, Eric Staal, Sam Reinhart, Nick Cousins and Anthony Duclair joined Tkachuk in the room after being sent off in the final minutes.

Fitzgerald, Cousins, Reinhart and Duclair went for misconducts; Staal got 10 for ‘abuse of the officials.’

GOALS OF GAME 2

• Vegas 1, Florida 0 (7:05 PP, 1st): Jonathan Marchessault comes across with a wrister from the right circle and the Knights are off to the races.
• Vegas 2, Florida 0 (17:59, 1st): Moments after the Panthers put the heat on Adin Hill, Alec Martinez goes top shelf from the left circle.
• Vegas 3, Florida 0 (2:59, 2nd): Nicolas Roy walks in from the corner, figures, why not? and beats Sergei Bobrovsky.
• Vegas 4, Florida 0 (7:10, 2nd): Brett Howden gets in on the fun by waltzing through the Florida defense following a Sam Bennett turnover and that will be it for Bobrovsky.
• Vegas 4, Florida 1 (0:14, 3rd): Anton Lundell banked a shot off Martinez and past Hill to give the Panthers at least a glimpse of hope by scoring right off the hop.
• Vegas 5, Florida 1 (2:10, 3rd): Yeah, forget about that eh. The Florida defense collapsed again allowing Jack Eichel to find Marchessault walking in on Alex Lyon. Again, no chance for the Florida goalie — whomever it was.
• Vegas 6, Florida 1 (10:33, 3rd): Michael Amadio was all alone on William Karlsson’s wing as he scored with ease.
• Vegas 6, Florida 2 (12:44, 3rd): Matthew Tkachuk scored off a fat rebound from a Sam Bennett shot. Is Hill human? Probably not.
• Vegas 7, Florida 2 (17:58 PP, 3rd): Howden gets his second of the night.

GR’S 3 STARS OF GAME 2

1. Adin Hill, Vegas

2. Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas

3. Brett Howden, Vegas

FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK

THE 2023 STANLEY CUP FINAL

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

GAME 3 (Vegas leads 2-0)

• When: Thursday, 8 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV: TNT
  
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM, WPOW 96.5 FM2, WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932
• Series Schedule — Game 1: @Vegas 5, Florida 2; Game 2: Monday @ Vegas; Game 3: Thursday at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 4: Saturday at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 5*:Tuesday June 13 at Vegas, 8 (TNT); Game 6*: Friday June 16 at Florida, 8 (TNT); Game 7*: Monday June 19 at Vegas, 8 (TNT). * – If Necessary
• 2022-23 Regular Season Series (Even 1-1): @Vegas 4, Florida 2 (Jan. 12); @Florida 2, Vegas 1 (March 7)
• All-time Regular Season Series: Golden Knights lead 6-3-1
• Postseason History: First meeting
• How They Got Here — Vegas: d. Winnipeg in 5, Edmonton in 6, Dallas in 6; Florida: d. Boston in 7, Toronto in 5, Carolina in 4.