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Golden Knights inflict another thrashing on the Panthers
After a convincing victory on Saturday night, the Golden Knights were back in front of their home fans tonight to welcome the Panthers for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Knights made no changes to their line-up. As for the Panthers, with Radko Gudas banged up, the club preferred to dress Casey Fitzgerald to have seven defensemen in uniform. Zac Dalpe was left out.

Early in the game, both teams tried to set the tone. In the end, however, it was the home side that really caught the eye, thanks in particular to Ivan Barbashev’s big check.

The victim? Poor Radko Gudas, who was already a little banged up. He retired to the dressing room and didn’t return to the game afterwards.

The Golden Knights then found themselves on the power play soon after, and they took advantage of it to make their opponents pay. Once again, it was Jonathan Marchessault who threaded the needle with a major league shot.

Sergei Bobrovsky saw little of the sequence.

The Knights kept their foot on the pedal after that, and it paid off once again. This time, it was Alec Martinez’s turn to hit the target with a precise shot.

And this time, Bobrovsky didn’t have much traffic to deal with.

After 20 minutes, therefore, the hosts were in control with a fine 2-0 lead.

And clearly, the Western champions still had some nasty stuff to come out. In the second period, Nicolas Roy and Brett Howden threaded the needle.

And after those four goals, Bobrovsky was thrown out of the game.

So it was Alex Lyon who defended the Panthers’ net for the rest of the game.

Clearly, the Panthers seemed to be a little sleepy, and Matthew Tkachuk probably wanted to wake up his teammates. So he served up a violent body check to Jack Eichel, a legal but fairly ordinary gesture.

He was given a 10-minute misconduct.

Eichel had to retreat to the dressing room before the end of the second period. Even so, the home side had a 4-0 lead thanks to a fine performance from goaltender Adin Hill.

Early in the third, Eichel was back on the bench. But the Panthers finally showed signs of life, as Anton Lundell took advantage of some confusion to put his team on the scoreboard.

That said, the Knights made sure to put the brakes on any hopes of a comeback. Marchessault(again ) took advantage of a clever pass from Eichel to score his team’s fifth goal.

Michael Amadio followed suit to give the Golden Knights a five-goal lead.

On his return to the ice, Tkachuk also scored.

It was a lost cause, but at least he showed a sign of life.

The problem was that he received another 10-minute misconduct afterwards, so he was ejected from the game. Three misconducts in two games is not ideal.

Brett Howden then scored his second of the game to make it 7-2. That was the final score of the match.

The next game takes place on Thursday evening in Florida. The Panthers will have to hope their fans make the difference, because they’re really not pulling their weight right now.

Extension

After his second goal of the game, the Golden Knights reminded fans via their Twitter account that the Panthers allowed them to select Jonathan Marchessault in the expansion draft. Clearly, he’s making his former club pay.

I love it.

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