The Vegas Golden Knights, born out of trepidation, tragedy and finally triumph, received their first Stanley Cup in simply their sixth season, beating the Florida Panthers, 9-3, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

The Knights, the highest seed within the Western Conference, used a high-speed, sharp-elbowed assault to overwhelm the Panthers, the eighth seed within the Eastern Conference, in 5 video games. The Knights had been making their second look within the finals, the identical because the Panthers.

But whereas the Panthers got here inside one spherical of a championship for the primary time since 1996, the Knights made the second-fastest journey to a Stanley Cup victory by any crew within the growth period that started in 1967, trailing solely the Edmonton Oilers, who received the Cup of their fifth season within the league. (The Oilers performed seven seasons within the World Hockey Association earlier than becoming a member of the N.H.L.)

After a shaky begin to Game 5, the Golden Knights opened the scoring about 12 minutes into the primary interval. After Vegas goalie Adin Hill stopped Florida heart Aleksander Barkov, the Knights captain Mark Stone scored an unassisted short-handed objective. Vegas scored once more lower than two minutes later.

In the second interval, Vegas scored 4 occasions in lower than 10 minutes, together with a second objective by Stone, to construct an insurmountable lead. The Panthers had been taking part in with out their main scorer, Matthew Tkachuk, who was injured in Game 4. But Vegas was clearly the hungrier crew.

The Knights followers, fueled by a raucous in-house D.J., cheerleaders and an over-the-top gentle present, spent the third interval making ready for a full-throated celebration that few imagined simply six years in the past.

The annals of the N.H.L. are affected by failed franchises. Expansion golf equipment. Teams that moved to new markets. Teams that moved once more. Remember the Cleveland Barons? The Kansas City Scouts? The Minnesota North Stars?

So it’s no surprise critics had been skeptical when, in 2016, Commissioner Gary Bettman held a news conference at a hotel in Las Vegas to announce that town can be house to the Golden Knights, the league’s thirty first crew. With the temperature exterior peaking at 108 degrees, Bettman fielded questions in regards to the viability of knowledgeable hockey crew in a desert metropolis the place many residents are retirees or work in service jobs at night time.

A bunch of minor league hockey teams — together with the Gamblers, the Outlaws, the Aces, the Thunder and the Ice Dice — have struggled in Las Vegas. The Coyotes, who relocated to Arizona from Winnipeg for the 1996-97 season, had been in such bad financial shape that the N.H.L. needed to take over the crew at one level. Maybe hockey wasn’t meant to be performed within the desert.

Still, Bettman pointed to town’s rising inhabitants and its repute for leisure.

“We think this is a tremendously exciting opportunity not just for Las Vegas but for the league as well,” he mentioned.

There had been additionally questions on including a franchise in a metropolis recognized for authorized sports activities playing, one thing sports activities leagues, the N.H.L. included, had lengthy shunned. Bettman mentioned betting on hockey wasn’t as well-liked because it was on soccer, so the risk that gamers would throw a sport was minimal.

“We don’t worry about the integrity of our game,” Bettman mentioned.

As it turned out, Bettman ought to have put cash down on the crew earlier than it took the ice for the primary time. The Knights overcame seemingly each impediment thrown at them of their inaugural season. They offered greater than 14,000 season tickets earlier than the crew even had a reputation. The crew moved into T-Mobile Arena, which was already open on the Strip.

But after the crew’s remaining preseason sport, a gunman within the Mandalay Bay resort, a mile or so south of the world, opened fire on a concert close by, killing 58 individuals and wounding a whole lot of others. The crew’s gamers, who had been imagined to have appeared at a public rally the following day, turned a galvanizing power within the metropolis. They fanned out throughout the group, thanking cops, giving blood and donating tens of hundreds of {dollars} to assist victims, their households and emergency medical employees.

Their response endeared them to town’s surprised and grieving residents. And remarkably, the Knights went on an epic run. Led by the three-time Stanley Cup champion Marc-Andre Fleury in objective, the crew started the season as 500-to-1 lengthy photographs to win the Stanley Cup. Yet they collected 109 factors and a .622 profitable proportion within the common season, each league data for a crew in its first season by huge margins. They raced by means of the primary three rounds of the playoffs, beating the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks and the Winnipeg Jets, and received the primary sport of the Stanley Cup finals towards the Washington Capitals. The crew misplaced the following 4 video games and the collection, however it had made its mark like nobody else.

“The team wrapped themselves around the town, and the town wrapped themselves around the team,” Brad Kreel, a longtime Las Vegas resident, advised me earlier than the crew’s remaining sport that season.

The W.N.B.A.’s Aces got here from San Antonio in 2018, the Raiders arrived from Oakland, Calif., a few years later, and now the Athletics are trying to find a stadium within the metropolis, too, validating the N.H.L.’s hunch that town, regardless of being the Fortieth-largest media market within the U.S. might support big-time sports teams.

The Knights, although, are actually fixtures. They have made the playoffs in five of their six seasons, and regardless of the lengthy odds, have confirmed the sports activities world that Las Vegas can help a professional sports activities crew, and that crew can succeed.