Russian Ivan Barbashev won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. Russian Ivan Barbashev plays in the club, he won the cup for the second time in his career.

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 (2-0, 4-1, 3-2) in Game 5 of the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoff Finals. As a result, the score in the series to four wins was 4-1 in favor of Vegas.

For Vegas, goals were scored by Mark Stone (12th, 38th and 55th minutes), Nicholas Hug (14th minute), Alec Martinez (31st minute), Reilly Smith (33rd minute) , Michael Amadio (40th minute), Ivan Barbashev (49th minute) and Nicolas Roy (59th minute). Florida have Aaron Ekblad (23rd minute), Sam Rinehart (49th minute) and Sam Bennett (52nd minute).

Vegas has been playing in the NHL since the 2017/18 season. The club reached the final twice and the semi-finals four times. For the first time, the club played in the final in 2018, but then lost in a series match with the Washington Capitals.

For Ivan Barbashev, this is the second Stanley Cup in his career. He won it for the first time in the 2018/19 season when he played with the St. Louis Blues.

In February 2022, after the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine, the NHL stopped considering Russia as a possible venue for future matches involving league clubs. At the same time, Russian players can play for NHL clubs without restrictions. In May 2023, the NHL will also banned bring the Stanley Cup to Russia after the end of the season.

Olesya Pavlenko