A year ago at this time, the Vegas Golden Knights didn't have a single player on their roster. Now, they're headed to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season.

The Golden Knights wrapped up a gentleman's sweep of the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, taking their Western Conference Final series four games to one. As a result, the NHL's newest team becomes the first expansion team in all of sports to reach the championship round since the St. Louis Blues did it in 1968.

It must be noted that the Blues faced a different set of circumstances when they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final back then. It was the first season that the NHL had expanded beyond the Original Six, and the Blues were one of six expansion teams placed in their own conference. The Blues entered the postseason in a field of eight, and they went on to be swept by the Montreal Canadiens in the Cup Final.

The Golden Knights, meanwhile, are the league's lone expansion team this season, and they entered the playoffs as one of 16 teams vying for the Cup.

They've put on a stunning performance throughout the postseason, going 12-3 through the first three rounds and making rather quick work of the Jets, who were considered to be one of the best teams in not only the conference, but in the entire NHL.

The Knights have gotten stellar contributions from their top line of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith, but their leading candidate for Conn Smythe at this point is undoubtedly goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The veteran goaltender, who won three Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins before being selected by Vegas in last summer's expansion draft, has posted a .947 save percentage throughout the playoffs so far.

The Golden Knights entered the regular season with 500-1 odds of winning the Stanley Cup. Now they're just four wins away from defying those long odds.</s>WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Vegas Golden Knights are going to the Stanley Cup Finals — with a chip on their shoulder.

“Everybody on this team has something to prove,” Ryan Reaves said. “We call ourselves ‘The Golden Misfits’ for a reason. We’re doing a good job of proving everybody wrong.”

Reaves scored the winning goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves and the Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Sunday to wrap up the Western Conference finals in five games.

“It’s insane,” said defenseman Deryk Engelland, who grabbed the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl after the final horn to celebrate with his teammates. “Your goal is always to make the playoffs. But if I were to guess I would be sitting here doing this right now, you would be a little skeptical at the time.”

Alex Tuch also scored for the Knights. They lost Game 1 in Winnipeg before winning four straight to become the first expansion team since the 1968 St. Louis Blues — when the six initial expansion teams were put alone in the West — to get to the finals.

“It was their time,” Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said. “They’re just playing really well.”

Vegas will meet Tampa Bay or Washington in the finals. Tampa Bay leads the Eastern finals 3-2, with Game 6 set for Monday night in Washington.

The Knights, whose jaw-dropping inaugural 109-point campaign included a Pacific Division crown, swept Los Angeles in the first round, and knocked out the Sharks in six games in the second.

“All those records and everything, it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not the last team standing,” Vegas center Jonathan Marchessault said. “I think we have a lot of gas left.”

Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.

“It’s very difficult to find that positive feeling at this moment,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.

Reaves, the bruising Winnipeg native acquired from Pittsburgh before to the trade deadline in February, snapped a 1-1 tie with 6:39 left in the second period when he tipped Luca Sbisa’s point shot past Hellebuyck. Reaves’ previous goal came 3½ months ago while with Pittsburgh.

“The guys that weren’t playing, myself included, we stayed ready,” Reaves said. “We had fun while we were doing it, but we worked hard so when we were called upon we were ready to go.”

Fleury stopped 151 of 161 shots in the series, and allowed just six goals after giving up four in the opener.

“Everybody’s stepping up at different times,” Fleury said.

Winnipeg got a power play early in the third, but couldn’t muster much. The Knights smothered much of the Jets’ attack for the next 10 minutes.

The Jets pressed with under 4 minutes to go, with Fleury stopping captain Blake Wheeler on the doorstep, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Knights closed out their third straight series on the road.

The Jets had the NHL’s second-best record with 114 points in the regular season. They advanced to the first conference final in city’s history with a five-game victory over the Minnesota Wild in the opening round before topping the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Nashville Predators in Game 7 on the road.

The Jets were an NHL-best 32-7-2 at home in the regular season, but were a pedestrian 5-4 in the playoffs, including losses in four of their last five post-season outings.</s>Ryan Reaves scored the winning goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights pushed their remarkable expansion season into the Stanley Cup Final, beating the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Sunday in Game 5 of the Western Conference final.

Alex Tuch also scored for the Knights. They lost Game 1 in Winnipeg before winning four straight to become the first expansion team since the 1968 St. Louis Blues — when the six initial expansion teams were put alone in the West — to get to the final.

Vegas will meet the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Washington Capitals in the final. Tampa Bay leads the Eastern Conference final 3-2, with Game 6 set for Monday night in Washington.

Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets, and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.</s>The Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion NHL team in its first season, beat all the odds and made it to the finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And we're going to turn now to hockey and an incredible Cinderella story.

GREENE: That's the sound outside an arena on the Las Vegas Strip last night. Fans of the Vegas Golden Knights were watching as their team beat the Winnipeg Jets to reach hockey's Stanley Cup final.

DAN D'UVA: (Yelling) A (unintelligible) feed. And it goes wide. And that's it. It's over. The Knights are going to the Stanley Cup Final.

JIM HUGHSON: The incredible journey continues for the Vegas Golden Knights.

KENNY ALBERT: Two hundred and twenty-seven days after their first regular season game in franchise history, the Vegas Golden Knights are headed to the Stanley Cup Final.

OK. The announcers sound a little excited, but this is exciting. An expansion franchise in the very first season, a team made up of castaway players not wanted by other teams, and here they are even though they've been calling themselves the misfits.

GREENE: Yeah, the misfits, but coaching and chemistry and some unbelievable goaltending saw them set the league on fire.

INSKEEP: Jonathan Marchessault is on his fourth NHL team in five years but is now leading scorer in the playoffs.

JONATHAN MARCHESSAULT: We went against the odds all year. We're going to keep doing what we do best. I mean, it's just prove people wrong. And whoever we're facing, we're probably not going to be favorite next round. So it's just the way it goes, and that's fine with that.

GREENE: And this is what makes this story even more special. The Golden Knights bonded with this city in a moment of tragedy. Their first-ever game last October came just days after the mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead.

INSKEEP: Yeah, Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury says the team was happy to be a rallying point.

MARC-ANDRE FLEURY: It was a big moment, obviously, in the city. And I think as a team, if we - you know, we couldn't, you know, heal anybody, you know? But if we could just change their mind a bit, you know, throughout those first few weeks and throughout the season and get them to be proud of their team, cheering for something - you know? - they can - I'm happy that we're able to provide a little bit of that, you know, to Vegas.

GREENE: And now this team, the Golden Knights, could be Stanley Cup champions if they can pull off four more wins.</s>Just like the city they represent is unlike any other in the world, the Knights are clearly not your typical expansion team.

With apologies to the late, great Shirley Povich, the million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Stanley Cup Final.

Mr. Povich had never heard of the Knights when he penned that famous lede for The Washington Post, of course. He was instead describing Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. But his immortal words stand the test of time as a fitting tribute to a first-year NHL team that is rewriting the professional sports history books.

The latest chapter in this remarkable story concluded Sunday north of the border when the Knights handled the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 to take the Western Conference championship in five games. Throughout the series, the Jets had few answers for the Knights’ speed and tenacious forechecking. Of equal importance, Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is on a roll reminiscent of when Jean-Sebastien Giguere carried the unheralded Anaheim Mighty Ducks to the 2003 Cup Final.

Nobody saw this coming. Not last June, when the Knights made their roster selections. Not in January, when the Knights ran up an eight-game winning streak. Not in April, when the Knights finished the regular season with the fifth-best record in the league. Expansion teams and their castoffs are supposed to be cannon fodder. But just as the city they represent is unlike any other in the world, the Knights are clearly not your standard expansion team.

“It’s been an awesome ride so far,” said Knights coach Gerard Gallant before slipping into coachspeak. “We’re far from satisfied. We’ve got a big series to prepare for.”

The record books say the Knights will become the third NHL expansion franchise to play for the Stanley Cup in its inaugural campaign. But the reality is much more impressive. When the Toronto Arenas captured the 1918 title, the NHL was in its first season. And the 1968 St. Louis Blues advanced to the final round only because the league grouped six new teams in the same division that year, ensuring one would reach the championship.

The Knights’ run is even more striking given that no first-year expansion team has ever advanced this far in the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball.

Make no mistake, the Knights brain trust — particularly GM George McPhee — has made more than a handful of general managers around the league look foolish in terms of talent evaluation and roster management. The Columbus Blue Jackets handed sniper William Karlsson — who scored 43 goals during the regular season and led his new team in points — to the Knights in order to shield other prospects in the expansion draft. Oops. The Pittsburgh Penguins did the same with Mr. Fleury, as did the Florida Panthers with top-line performers Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith.

The success of the Knights has invigorated a community and created hordes of new hockey fans in the most unlikely of locales — all while leaving shattered assumptions and conventions in the rearview mirror. The Knights are on a heater for the ages, and they’re still holding the dice.</s>What happens in Vegas … may never happen again.

The Vegas Golden Knights, who officially did not exist 15 months ago, are four victories away from winning the Stanley Cup.

That’s right: The NHL’s latest expansion team, expected to flounder in its inaugural season, has reached the Stanley Cup Final after dispatching the Winnipeg Jets in five games in the Western Conference finals.

How can we wrap our minds around this historic achievement? Let’s start here: In the modern era, Vegas is the first expansion team in the four major sports — NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB — to even post a winning record in its first season.

The NHL’s last two expansion franchises — the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild — won 28 and 25 games, respectively, during their first season in 2000-01. The Golden Knights went 51-24-7 this season to finish with the NHL’s fifth-best record.

How about the postseason? No expansion club in any sport has ever won a title in its first season, but have any even reached the championship round?

There’s one: The 1968 St. Louis Blues, who were one of six teams to added to the NHL when it expanded from six to 12 franchises. But those Blues needed to win just one playoff series to make the Stanley Cup Final and were swept by the Montreal Canadiens in the championship.

The Golden Knights, meanwhile, have rolled to a 12-3 record in the playoffs, taking a roster of other teams’ cast-offs to heights not seen by 17 other major franchises in their entire histories.

Did we mention the Detroit Lions have been around since 1930?

Fittingly enough, Vegas also is a good barometer of Vegas’ absurd run. The Golden Knights began the regular season with 500-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup and had long odds throughout the season, which could mean absurdly large paydays if they can knock off the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning-Washington Capitals Eastern Conference finals.

Even if they fall short in the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights will be remembered as the greatest expansion franchise ever. But if they manage to win it all, they’ll go down as one of the best stories in sports — period.</s>The Vegas Golden Knights seem to be the talk of the town these days.

After the expansion club defeated the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday to advance to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, experts have been quick to call Vegas the best expansion team ever.

But how did the name, Vegas Golden Knights, originate?

According to owner Bill Foley, the organization wanted a powerful warrior to represent Las Vegas.

"We are now the Golden Knights," he said in November. "My whole idea was to create a logo and a name that was powerful, that would epitomize the warrior class. The knights are the epitome of the warrior class, the top of the line in terms of defending the realm, defending the unprotected. This is all part of the culture we want to create with the hockey team. And hockey players are warriors and they're team players, they're not individuals, they're playing together."

Foley was reportedly deciding between the Silver Knights and Desert Knights as the team's name, but ultimately decided on Golden Knights.</s>An improbable goal-scorer lifted an improbable champion into the Stanley Cup finals. Ryan Reaves’ tie-breaking goal in the second period on Sunday helped the Vegas Golden Knights to edge the Winnipeg Jets 2-1, clinching the Western Conference title for Vegas in their first season of existence.

A roster consisting almost entirely of other teams’ castoffs will meet either Tampa Bay or Washington for the Stanley Cup. The Lightning lead the Eastern Conference championship series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for Monday night in Washington.

Reaves’ first goal of this postseason, and just his second career playoff goal, came early in the second period. Luca Sbisa took a wrister from the point that deflected off one stick before Reaves got his blade on it, tipping it off the crossbar and over the goal line. The Golden Knights defended the lead fiercely from that point, getting 31 saves from Marc-Andre Fleury and keeping the Jets from overrunning their defensive zone, even when Winnipeg pulled goalie Connor Hellebuyck for a sixth skater in the last two minutes.

Vegas became the first expansion team to reach the Cup finals since the St Louis Blues, who played in a division of nothing but expansion teams after the NHL grew from six to 12 teams prior to the 1967-68 season.

As they have done throughout the series, the Golden Knights started fast. A failed clearance by Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey found the stick of Alex Tuch in the high slot. He wheeled and wired a wrister past Hellebuyck at 5:11 of the first period for his sixth playoff goal. Vegas had a 15-3 advantage in shot attempts in the first nine minutes, but Winnipeg finally found some traction as its sellout crowd roared to life.

Morrissey atoned for his mistake by tying the game at 17:14 of the first with his first playoff goal. Bryan Little’s clean faceoff win found its way to Morrissey for a one-timer over Fleury’s glove.</s>Viva Las Vegas and those who took a massive chance by putting their money on the Golden Knights before the season began.

The Golden Knights are only four wins away from hoisting up the Stanley Cup in their first season of existence. And it’s worth noting that this expansion team is making its inaugural season playoff run look effortless.

The Golden Knights swept the Kings in Round 1, had six-game triumph over the Sharks in the second round and only needed five games against the Jets to capture the Western Conference Finals.

No one saw this coming.

NHL pundits thought it was an impossible feat for an expansion team and Vegas bookies put the odds against the Golden Knights. Hell, even the Golden Knights owner Bill Foley told ESPN at the beginning of the season that he didn’t plan to have his team make it to the playoffs in three season, let alone contend for the Stanley Cup for at least another six seasons.

With 500-1 odds, the Golden Knights were practically the longest of long shots to win the Stanley Cup before the season began. If someone put down a modest $20 on the Golden Knights to win the Cup, they could see a $10,020 payout. And the number increases dramatically once you get into the triple-digit bets.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell took to Twitter to see who all could take home some serious cash if Vegas in fact finishes its inaugural season on top:</s>In a city where Frank Sinatra crooned, the Rat Pack roamed, Sugar Ray Leonard fought and Liberace headlined, the Golden Knights are proving to be one of the most celebrated acts in Las Vegas history.

The expansion Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Sunday to win the Western Conference final in five games and earn an improbable berth to the Stanley Cup Final.

Fourth-liner Ryan Reaves, a Winnipeg native who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a complicated three-team deal, scored the game-winning goal in the second period.

If the Golden Knights triumph against either the Tampa Bay Lightning or Washington Capitals, they would be considered one of the most unlikely champions in sports history.

We are talking Buster Douglas taking down Mike Tyson, the 1969 New York "Miracle Mets" or No. 8-seed Villanova beating Georgetown to win the 1985 NCAA championship.

Historically, expansion teams are set up to initially fail. In the modern era, the Golden Knights, who went 51-24-7 in the regular season, are the first expansion team in the four major sports to post a winning record. The last two NHL expansion teams, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, won 28 and 25 games, respectively, in 2000-01.

Most experts predicted the Golden Knights would finish among the league's worst teams. Nobody believed they could finish with the fifth-best record.

The Golden Knights might be the best team story in the NHL since the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers rewrote the record book in the 1980s with four Stanley Cups in five seasons.

It is a feel-good tale. The Las Vegas community and the team bonded before the first puck was dropped because of the Oct. 1 tragedy that saw 58 people die in a mass shooting during a concert in the city.

As team members supported the victims' families and first responders, the connection with fans grew stronger. On opening night, Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland made an emotional, inspirational speech at center ice that will never be forgotten.

The community was strong, and it turned out the team was strong on the ice. With speed, passion and aggressiveness, the Golden Knights have played a perfect style for this era of hockey.

The Golden Knights have become just as unique in their presentation of the game, using theatrics and creativity at T-Mobile Arena. Laser shows. Elvis impersonators. Showgirls. Skits. Swordplay. Wayne Newton. Humorous comedy bits on the video screen. A castle in the stands.

All of the players are popular, but none more so than goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, the former Pittsburgh Penguins star who has launched the second act of his career in Las Vegas.

Although the Golden Knights' success has been an exciting story line, not everyone is celebrating it.

Some fans believe winning should take time. They point out important franchises have never won a Stanley Cup. The storied Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won since 1967.

The NHL changed the player-protection rules in the expansion draft to give the Golden Knights a greater opportunity at forming a better roster than previous expansion teams.

The 30 other teams were allowed to protect seven forwards and three defensemen and one goalie or eight forwards/defensemen and one goalie.

That means the Golden Knights, in theory, landed the 10th- or 12th-best player on every team’s roster.

They were supposed to get third-line forwards and No. 4 defensemen, but they did better than that because general manager George McPhee shrewdly managed the assets to land first-liners James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson and a top goalie in Fleury.

The Golden Knights have earned this impossible dream trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Vegas Golden Knights become the first expansion team to make the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season since 1968, a season in which one of the six teams that entered the league was guaranteed to reach the final.