Home / News / Adin Hill does his best Braden Holtby impression with unbelievable stick save in Game One of Stanley Cup Final

Adin Hill does his best Braden Holtby impression with unbelievable stick save in Game One of Stanley Cup Final

By Chris Cerullo

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June 4, 2023 10:52 am

The Vegas Golden Knights won Game One of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final 5-2 over the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Vegas was powered to the victory by a three-goal third period and a 33-save effort from goaltender Adin Hill.

One of those 33 saves was more important and more impressive than the others. Hill made an unbelievable desperation stick save on Nick Cousins in the second period that kept the score knotted at 1-1. The second period would end 2-2 and Hill’s save allowed the first of those three third period goals to go down as the game-winner.

Hill’s diving reach with his stick drew parallels to Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby‘s similar save against the Golden Knights in Game Two of the 2018 Cup Final.

Hill’s save occurred with 19:10 remaining in Saturday’s second period and was Hill’s ninth stop of the game to that point. The Panthers broke into the Vegas zone on a four-on-three rush and almost executed it to perfection.

Sam Bennett carried the puck over the blueline before dishing to a trailing Brandon Montour. Montour froze a defender and fed Matthew Tkachuk on the right wing who made a tap pass to a wide open Cousins in the low slot. In one motion, Cousins redirected the pass towards a yawning empty net as Hill had been pulled from his crease by Mountour’s pass to Tkachuk.

The score looked it was surely going to be 2-1 Florida in the early stages of the second until hill flashed his stick out with his right hand and stuffed the shot with the heel of his blade.

“That’s an unreal save,” Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said postgame. “It’s a game changer because we come down and get one at the other end. You need those saves at key moments – that was a big save. Guys get excited to see that for obvious reasons. I don’t know what it does to them but for us it picks us up.”

At the second intermission, TNT analyst and future hall-of-fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist commented on the save. “He’s sliding out of position. What a great desperation save there,” Lundqvist said. “Unreal. I mean, if you look at it in comparison to Holtby a few years ago in this building, this time they were on the right side of things.”

Safe to say the hockey world agreed with Hank.

The stop Holtby made in 2018, which has been coined “The Save”, came with just two minutes left in the third period of Game Two with the Capitals up 3-2 and about to tie the series at 1-1. The Caps would go on to win that game and then three more in a row to capture the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

Hill and Vegas will be hoping that now that they’re on the right side of the save that they’ll experience the same fate.

Screenshot via TNT

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