Winnipeg Looks for Respect, on the Ice and Off It

For a short moment after the Sunday end, the decibel level dropped in Bell MTS Place, and the white-clad public of 15,321 was shocked.

The Knights are the third team in NHL history to reach the Cup final in the inaugural season, joining Toronto Arenas in 1918 and St. Louis Blues from 1968.

"As I said, it's great to win tonight and be great at being the champions of the Western Conference, but that's not why we're here."

Ryan Reaves, from Winnipeg, scored the winning goal at 13:21 of the second period, and Alex Tuch scored the first goal for the Knights.


Fleury, the favorite Conn Smythe Trophy trophy, as a MVP play-off, ended with 31 defeats and hindered the high Jets' score in the series.

"He was our best player throughout the year," said Cody Eakin from Fleury. "You go up and down the warehouse, and the guys showed up at different times, but he was consistently our rock, the guy who kept us in games and created key moments."

Reaves, who did not earn points for the Knights after he was captured three days before the deadline for trading in February, redirected Luc Sis 'shot from the point of Jets' goalkeeper Connor Hellebuycka (30 records) to put the Knights in front of 2-1.

Fleury made a key saving on Kyle Connor at the end of the Power Winnipeg game at the beginning of the third period. But unlike games 3 and 4 at the T-Mobile Arena, when the Jets dominated the last 20 minutes, the Knights did not sit down.

Winnipeg had a chance in the last second when the puck bounced off Mark Scheifele. However, Knights center William Karlsson tracked down and the main NHL scorer in postseason failed to score.

David Perron was the first player of the Knights on the boards when the horn sounded, and the other players attacked Fleury a moment later to start the ceremony.
"If you come back to the beginning of the season, of course your goal is always to play-off," said defender Deryk Engelland. "But if I guessed that I would be sitting here doing it now, you would be a bit skeptical.

"But when we started rolling and we reached this season, we saw that we have a team that can deal damage and a phenomenal goalkeeper who will stop everything." It was an amazing ride, we just want to keep doing it. "

In the main season, Winnipeg made the best 32 matches in the league, but the Knights came out with a bang trying to close the series.

"The biggest thing in today's game was the first eight minutes of the hockey game," said Gallant. "They took her quite well in the second half of this period, but again, when you set out and play against a team like Winnipeg, I thought the first seven minutes were huge for our team."

Winnipeg regained his strength and continued to play until the end of the first period, tying the score from 2:46.

Morrissey compensated for his earlier mistake when he sent a rocket behind Fleury's glove after winning the offensive offensive by Bryan Little.

"There are definitely low expectations for us, but faith was high for us," said Jonathan Marchessault. "When we started to win these few games, it lasts a whole year, the same thing has been happening since the beginning of the year, everyone said we would let go at some point, let's just let them enjoy fighting with haters. "