Stone Sparks Vegas Comeback in Stanley Cup 2026 Push

Mark Stone turned a 3-0 hole into a 5-3 win on Sunday, and the Golden Knights are back in the stanley cup 2026 Final. His power-play goal 19 seconds into the second period started five straight Vegas goals after a lower-body injury kept him out for five games.

Stone Starts the Rally

Stone returned to the lineup for Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against Colorado and cut the Avalanche lead to 3-1 before the first period had fully settled into the second. Vegas had trailed by three goals, a position it had never won from in the playoffs before Sunday, and the captain’s finish changed the game’s direction immediately.

“We couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start,” Stone said after the game. “But if you are going to get down by three goals, I guess it’s better that it happened early.”

The Golden Knights then scored five consecutive goals and finished with a 5-3 win, the first playoff victory in franchise history after trailing by three or more. They had been 0-19 in those situations before Sunday. That turnaround sends them to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in four seasons.

Vegas And Stone In June

The result fits Stone’s track record with Vegas. He has played seven-plus seasons with the Golden Knights, never appearing in more than 66 games, and he has often shown up when the stakes are highest.

On June 13, 2023, he scored a hat trick in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final as Vegas beat the Florida Panthers 9-3 and closed out the best-of-7 series 4-1. Three years later, the captain is again at the center of a run that began with one power-play goal and ended with another trip to the final.

Vegas will play the winner of the Montreal Canadiens-Carolina Hurricanes Eastern Conference Final. For Stone, the path back to the trophy he received from Gary Bettman after the 2023 title has already run through an early deficit, a returning captain and a five-goal response.