Mark Stone of Winnipeg, Manitoba recorded his second career playoff hat trick on Tuesday as the Vegas Golden Knights won their first Stanley Cup in playoff history. The right winger scored thrice as the Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in game five of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals. Vegas won the series four games to one.
In the process, Stone became the first player since 1922 to notch a hat trick in a Stanley Cup clinching game according to Chris Cuthbert of Rogers Sportsnet. Babe Dye of Hamilton, Ontario accomplished the feat for the Toronto St. Patricks in a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Millionaires to win the Stanley Cup three games to two on March 28, 2022. Interestingly, Dye scored four goals in the contest.
Stone opened the scoring with a shorthanded unassisted marker at 11:52 of the first period. He then put the Golden Knights up 5-1 from Brett Howden of Calgary, Alberta and Chandler Stephenson of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at 17:15 of the second period. Stone then had his second unassisted goal of the game at 14:06 of the third period to put Vegas up 8-3.
Stone was one of three Canadians on the Golden Knights with a multi-point game. The others were defenseman Shea Theodore from Langley, British Columbia, who had three assists, and Reilly Smith of Mimico, Ontario had one goal and one assist for two points. Three other Canadians scored on Tuesday. They were Michael Amadio of Sault. Ste. Marie, Ontario, Nicolas Hague of Kitchener, Ontario, and Nicolas Roy of Amos, Quebec.
Stone had 11 goals and 13 assists for 24 points in 22 playoff games. He was a +5 with eight penalty minutes, four power-play goals, one shorthanded goal, one game-winning goal, 49 shots on goal, one faceoff win, 16 blocked shots, 26 hits, 31 takeaways and seven giveaways. Stone’s prior playoff hat trick came on April 14, 2019 in a 6-3 Golden Knights win over the San Jose Sharks in game four of the Western Conference first round playoff series. Interestingly, Stone does not have a regular season hat trick in 584 career regular season games.
