Vegas Golden Knights: Stone fires Team Canada to IIHF World Finals

The Vegas Golden Knights will have three players battling for the Gold Medal at the IIHF World Championships on Sunday.

It was a good day overall for the Vegas Golden Knights contingent in Slovakia with Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore advancing through to the IIHF World Championship Finals with Team Canada.

However, Nikita Gusev and Team Russia were unable to get past the Final Four stage and will now compete in the Bronze Medal game today.

Let’s turn our focus back to Team Canada for a minute, however, as once again Vegas’ trio of international stars played a big role in their country’s success.

Fresh off the back of setting up the tying goal late in regulation and then scoring the overtime winner against Team Switzerland, Stone produced the goods once again as he opened the scoring against the Czech Republic.

Stone battled hard to the front of the net to redirect Troy Stecher’s dish into the back of the net for his tournament-leading eighth goal. He also grabbed a helper later in the game to collect his sixth assist and 14th point in nine games.

Marchessault also had an assist in the game after he and Stone combined to feed Luc-Pierre Dubois for the Columbus Blue Jackets forward’s third goal of the tournament.

Marchessault now has three goals and seven assists for ten points in nine games, while Theodore, who was held without a point in yesterday’s contest, has one goal and five assists for six points and a plus/minus rating of +9 in nine games.

Darnell Nurse, Kyle Turris and Thomas Chabot were also on target for Team Canada and Matt Murray stopped 40 of 41 shots to celebrate his 25th birthday in style.

Team Canada will now be competing for the Gold Medal for the 10th time in the last 17 years when they take on Finland later today.

Finland produced a stunning defensive performance to shut out Russia and Gusev on their way to collecting a 1-0 win and setting up a Final against Team Canada.

Marko Anttila scored the game’s only goal and Kevin Lankinen recorded his team’s second shutout of the tournament with 32 saves.

It was a frustrating day at the office for Gusev and his Russian team-mates who had been the best team at the tournament with eight straight wins, scoring goals for fun in the process.

But Gusev, who has put up four goals and 11 assists for 15 points with a plus/minus rating of +15 in the tournament so far, could not find a way past Finland and will now have his sights set on securing the Bronze Medal against the Czech Republic later today.

We will have a summary of both games and updates on how all four Vegas Golden Knights players fared online later today.