NHL: Vegas Golden Knights beat Florida Panthers to clinch maiden Stanley Cup title

Mark Stone grabbed a brilliant hat-trick as the Vegas Golden Knights thrashed the Florida Panthers 9-3 on Tuesday to clinch the NHL Stanley Cup for the first time in the franchise's six-year history.

The Knights, who had taken a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with a battling victory in Florida on Saturday, dominated throughout at Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena to seal an emphatic victory over the Eastern Conference champions.

Florida were always struggling to keep a rampant Vegas at bay as the Knights became the fastest expansion team to win ice hockey's greatest prize, clinching the title in their sixth season.

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The previous record had been held by the Philadelphia Flyers, who won the title in their seventh season in the 1973-74 campaign.

Vegas captain Stone's hat-trick was the first by a player in a Stanley Cup-clinching game since Babe Dye achieved the feat for Toronto in 1922.

The Panthers -- also chasing a first Stanley Cup title -- had been dealt a blow before game five started with confirmation that star player Matthew Tkachuk was ruled out with an undisclosed injury.

After a cagey opening, Vegas skipper Stone opened the scoring in the first period with a superb goal that came with the Knights shorthanded due to a Florida powerplay.

Stone feinted cleverly to wrongfoot the Florida defense before lifting his shot past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Nicolas Hague made it 2-0 to Vegas soon afterwards, bundling home from close range after the puck squirted loose from beneath Bobrovsky during a furious goalmouth scramble.

Aaron Ekblad raised hopes of a Florida recovery with a goal early in the second period to make it 2-1, but Vegas roared back with four unanswered goals in the same period to launch raucous celebrations amongst the home fans.

Alex Martinez made it 3-1 after latching onto Jack Eichel's feed and slamming the puck into the top corner before Reilly Smith extended the Vegas lead after scooping home a clever between-the-legs pass from Brett Howden.

Stone then smashed in his second of the game, his long-range effort going through Bobrovsky's legs to make it 5-1.

With seconds remaining in the second period, Michael Amadio somehow bundled the puck in from close range to leave Vegas 6-1 up heading into the final period.

Ivan Barbashev drove in a seventh goal early in the third period as the rout continued, before Florida hit back with back-to-back strikes from Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett that made it 7-3.

Yet it was only a fleeting interruption to the Vegas scoring, with Stone smashing a long-range effort into an empty net before Nicolas Roy made it 9-3.

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