The Rise of the Vegas Goalkeeper: Bobrovsky Overshadowed in First Stanley Cup Finals Match

By the beginning of the Stanley Cup finals, all fans were already accustomed to the fact that Sergei Bobrovsky is the most talked about goalkeeper. The Russian throughout the playoffs showed unrealistic stability, sending the teams of the East on vacation one by one. Not surprisingly, Bobrovsky leads the race for the Conn Smythe, which is awarded to the most valuable hockey player in the playoffs.

Also, many experts before the start of the finals called the Russian keeper the most important key to Florida’s success. However, already in the first match of the main stage of the season, Bobrovsky was eclipsed by his colleague from Vegas.

The Golden Knights goalkeeper made an incredible save that gave his team their first victory in the confrontation.

Long awaited final

The 2023 Stanley Cup Final was special even before the start – only the seventh time in the last 90 years that teams have competed for the “cup” that have never won this trophy. At the same time, for both Vegas and Florida, this final was the second in history. The Panthers reached this stage back in 1996, when the legendary Pavel Bure lit up for the club from Florida. And the Knights in their first year in the league in 2018. In general, the performance of the Golden Knights in the NHL is amazing: in the six years of their existence, they reached the finals of the West four times. The success of the young team, perhaps, does not surprise only the owner of Vegas, Bill Foley, who set ambitious goals even before the club’s first official match.

Playoffs in three years, Stanley Cup in six. No excuses,” Foley succinctly formulated the tasks.

At the same time, Foley himself admitted that after his statement, even the club staff looked at him like he was crazy. However, the achievements of the “knights” speak for themselves. To prevent Vegas from fulfilling the task of the owner and raising the Stanley Cup on time can be Florida keeper Sergey Bobrovsky, who is phenomenally holding the current playoffs: the Russian started 13 matches and scored 11 wins! At the same time, he missed two or less goals per meeting in eight games in a row.

However, even the incredible performance of Bobrovsky did not help Florida take the first match.

Incredible save by the Vegas keeper

The Panthers started the away match with a bang, as if there had never been a 10-day break without games. “Florida” even overdid it at the beginning of the first period, earning a removal: during a skirmish in front of the gate, the guest player hit the keeper Edin Hill. However, in the end, playing in the minority brought Bobrovsky’s team success. When playing extra, the Vegas hockey player lost his stick, and the Panthers immediately took possession of the puck, running away to the counterattack. And the most experienced Eric Staal effectively completed the sortie of the guests: he ran around the gate at speed and opened the scoring with a rebound from the goalkeeper.

Then, “Florida” had the opportunity to consolidate the advantage, having already realized their majority. But Vegas persevered and seized the initiative when playing in a 5-on-5 format. As a result, the “knights” had a shock end of the period, first forcing the opponent to leave, and then throwing in unequal lineups. At the same time, Bobrovsky had no chance to help the Panthers: Chandler Stevenson from behind the gate made a jewelry pass to Jonathan Marchesso, and he shot the keeper point-blank.

The chance to come forward again at “Florida” appeared at the beginning of the second period. After passing to an empty net, Cousins ​​was already mentally celebrating the goal, but Hill dropped his stick in the fall and stopped the puck on the ribbon. The spectacular goalkeeper barrier inspired Vegas, and a few minutes later Shea Theodore put the Golden Knights ahead for the first time in the match.

However, neither the save of a cosmic scale, nor Theodore’s goal knocked down Florida. On the contrary, the guests completely took the ending of the second period and managed to equalize 11 seconds before the siren. Alexander Barkov won a face-off against Anthony Duclair, who immediately sent the puck into the net with his hands.

The final 20 minutes promised to be just as equal and eventful. However, the hosts managed to break the pattern that worked the entire match and score two goals in a row. First, at the start of the third period, Zach Whitecloud scored with the transfer of Ivan Barbashev, who has already scored 16 (6 + 10) points in 18 games. Then “Florida” wrote out a sentence to itself, having made the rudest import in its zone. Matthew Tkachuk tried to start an attack through the nickel with a pass through the air, but Mark Stone tamed the flying puck, and then sent it into the net over Bobrovsky’s shoulder.

The Panthers did not mentally prepare for the next match, but went all out to even the score. And almost three minutes before the end of normal time, they had a chance to close the gap. Sam Rinehart ran one-on-one with Hill but couldn’t outplay him.

After this episode, the Vegas had no more similar failures in defense. The “Knights” killed the last minutes as a reference and kept the score 4:2 without any problems, until the hosts’ forward threw Florida into an empty net.

As a result, Vegas confidently took the first match of the Stanley Cup Final (5:2) and took the lead in the series – 1-0. Florida does not need to change anything globally. The Panthers showed a game that had previously brought them success. It’s just that in this meeting the team from Sunrise was frankly unlucky.