Golden Knights hold off Panthers in Game 4 of Stanley Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. --The Vegas Golden Knights can win the Stanley Cup at home on Tuesday.

Chandler Stephenson scored two goals, and the Golden Knights held on to defeat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at FLA Live Arena on Saturday.

"It's one win away from a lot of dreams for a lot of guys," Stephenson said.

William Karlsson scored the game-winning goal, Mark Stone and Nicolas Hague each had two assists, and Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas, which leads the best-of-7 series, 3-1.

The Stanley Cup will be in the building Tuesday for Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"It's a different game than the other ones, a lot more emotion, a lot more of everything," Stephenson said. "Everybody knows what's going to be there. I think just try to play. That's the biggest thing. Being at home too, the fans, everybody is going to be into it. The emotion is going to be high. Adrenaline. Everything. The biggest thing is just be composed. Shift by shift. It's all the cliches, but I feel confident."

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Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov each had a goal and an assist after Vegas took a 3-0 lead. Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for the Panthers.

"You've got to win four," Barkov said. "It's 3-1. I know they're one win away, we're three wins away, but all we can do is think about one game, bringing it back to Florida and that's our goal. That's what we want to do in Vegas, go there and try to win that game."

The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky with 2:26 remaining and got a power play with 17.4 seconds to play when Alex Pietrangelo was sent off for delay of game as he tried to send the puck around the end boards but it instead went directly into the netting.

Sam Reinhart's shot from the left face-off circle with nine seconds left broke Zach Whitecloud's stick, and Hill stopped Carter Verhaeghe's shot from the right circle with four seconds remaining. The clock expired before Matthew Tkachuk took the next shot from the slot.

"I like our fight," Montour said. "We're fighting back. In that third period we're a desperate team and we're dangerous. Obviously, they may be sitting back a little bit 3-0 but we've just got to keep pushing. We've got it in this group."

Tkachuk didn't play for a stretch of 10:41 in the third period, but he was on the ice for the final 2:26 after Bobrovsky was pulled.

He wouldn't discuss the reason he sat, but Florida coach Paul Maurice indicated it was an injury situation, saying Tkachuk was grinding and that the Panthers "were looking, hoping to get into a situation where he could use what he had to give us."

"Just trying to find a way to find a way out there to make it work tonight and came up just probably a second short," Tkachuk said. "Time ran out there with me and [Sam Bennett] whacking away. Two more seconds there, you never know."

Florida was also down 3-1 to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference First Round and came back to win the series, winning Games 5 and 7 on the road, each in overtime.

"I believe fully we've earned the right to play our best hockey in a difficult situation," Maurice said. "All we want to do is get this thing back here. It's not the series, it's not a game, it's just get this thing back home and give our fans another look at us."

Stephenson got the Golden Knights started by scoring 1:39 into the first period to make it 1-0.

Tkachuk and Aaron Ekblad went for a change after the puck came out of Florida's defensive zone at the right point, but Whitecloud got it and found Stephenson cutting into the open space in the middle. He dashed past Bennett and beat Bobrovsky five-hole.

Stephenson scored again at 7:28 of the second period with a glove-side one-timer from above the hash marks to make it 2-0.

Stone entered the zone with possession and Brett Howden drove to the net to create some space in the middle. Stone, in the left circle, found Stephenson for the one-timer.

"We just didn't want to lose," Stephenson said. "We wanted to push as best we could, try to take their fans out of it. I thought we did a lot of good things last game and wanted to try to continue that tonight, and just try to have a killer instinct."

Vegas made it 3-0 less than four minutes after Stephenson's second goal. Karlsson scored from the left circle off a rebound of Hague's shot at 11:04.

"I think we let up obviously a little bit there in the second," Montour said.

Florida pushed after Karlsson's goal and Montour scored on a shot that pinballed off Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore at 16:09 to cut Vegas' lead to 3-1.

Barkov made it 3-2 at 3:50 of the third period, scoring with a one-timer from the right circle off a backhand pass from Montour, who was below in the left circle.

Bobrovsky did his job to keep it a one-goal game, making seven straight saves after Barkov's goal, creating the feeling that the Panthers would do in Game 4 what they did in Game 3, score a late 6-on-5 goal and win in overtime.

Instead, time ran out.

"I know it's tough against any team in this league to come back from 3-0, but we almost did," Barkov said. "So, take the good things and move on."

NOTES: Jonathan Marchessault had an assist on Karlsson's goal to extend his point streak to nine games (eight goals, six assists). He has 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) to tie Tkachuk and Roope Hintz for the most in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season. … Vegas improved to 7-3 on the road in the playoffs to break its record of six in 2018. … The home team had won the previous three games in the Final. … Golden Knights center Jack Eichel left the game after he was hit in the side of the face by Marchessault's shot with 54 seconds left in the second period. He returned early in the third. … Hill is the first goalie in NHL history to win 10 games in a single postseason after not playing in his team's opening round. Laurent Brossoit started all five games against the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference First Round and the first three games against the Edmonton Oilers in the second round before sustaining an injury. … Bruce Cassidy coached his 100th playoff game. He is 53-47 in nine seasons with the Golden Knights (15-6), Boston Bruins (36-37) and Washington Capitals (2-4).