Jonathan Marchesault scored two goals and one assist and Brett Howden also scored twice. vegas golden nights won 7-2 over Florida Panthers Monday night in Las Vegas to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals
The third game of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla.
It was the third multiple-goal game of the playoffs for Marchesault, who has scored 12 goals in 19 games in this year’s postseason.
Michael Amadio had a goal and an assist, Jack Eichel and Chandler Stephenson each had two assists, and Alec Martinez and Nicolas Roy also scored for Vegas. Aiden Hill finished with 29 saves.
Anton Lundell and Matthew Tkachuk scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled at the 7:10 mark of the second period after stopping only nine of 13 shots. Alex Lyon finished and made 12 saves.
Vegas then took a 1–0 lead at 7:05 of the first period on a power-play goal by Marchesault.
Martínez made it 2–0 at 17:59 of the opening period when he fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot for his first goal of the playoffs.
Roy took the lead early in the second period when he picked up the puck in the left corner. Left open, he fired a wrist shot from the near post and inside for his second goal of the playoffs.
Howard extended the lead to 4–0 at the 7:10 mark of the middle period. He broke the slot and took a pass from Mark Stone and then backhanded a shot to Bobrovsky, who was then replaced by Lyon.
Eichel left the game with 2:04 remaining in the second period after making a thunderous tackle from Tkachuk near the blue line with Eichel’s helmet flying. Eichel got up and immediately went to the locker room moaning in pain but returned for the start of the third period.
Florida’s deficit became 4–1 just 14 seconds into the third period when Lundell’s shot carromed off Martinez’s shin guard. But Marchesault, left open in the slot, scored his second goal of the night less than two minutes later with an assist off the left board from Eichel, who was returning for his first shift after taking a big hit.
Amadio extended his lead to 6-1 in the middle of the final round from a good setup by William Carlsen.
Tkachuk scored his 10th goal of the playoffs two minutes later to make it 6–2 when he volleyed in a wrist shot from the left circle.
Howden finished the scoring, netting his second goal of the night with 2:08 left.
– Field Level Media