The Vegas Golden Knights are going to the Stanley Cup Final – with a chip on their shoulder.

"Everybody on this team has something to prove  Calvin Munson Jersey ," Ryan Reaves said. "We call ourselves `The Golden Misfits' for a reason. We're doing a good job of proving everybody wrong."

Reaves scored the winning goal, Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves and the Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Sunday to wrap up the Western Conference final in five games.

"It's insane," said defenseman Deryk Engelland, who grabbed the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl after the final buzzer to celebrate with his teammates. "Your goal is always to make the playoffs. But if I were to guess I would be sitting here doing this right now, you would be a little skeptical at the time."

Alex Tuch also scored for the Knights. They lost Game 1 in Winnipeg before winning four straight to become the first expansion team since the 1968 St. Louis Blues – when the six initial expansion teams were put alone in the West – to get to the final.

"It was their time," Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said. "They're just playing really well."

Vegas will meet Tampa Bay or Washington in the final. Tampa Bay leads the Eastern final 3-2, with Game 6 set for Monday night in Washington.

The Knights, whose jaw-dropping inaugural 109-point campaign included a Pacific Division crown, swept Los Angeles in the first round, and knocked out San Jose in six games in the second.

"All those records and everything, it doesn't mean anything if you're not the last team standing," Vegas center Jonathan Marchessault said. "I think we have a lot of gas left."

Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets  Cameron Erving Jersey , and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.

"It's very difficult to find that positive feeling at this moment," Jets coach Paul Maurice said.

Reaves, the bruising Winnipeg native acquired from Pittsburgh before to the trade deadline in February, snapped a 1-1 tie with 6:39 left in the second period when he tipped Luca Sbisa's point shot past Hellebuyck. Reeves last goal before Sunday came 3 1/2 months ago while with Pittsburgh.

"The guys that weren't playing, myself included, we stayed ready," Reaves said. "We had fun while we were doing it, but we worked hard so when we were called upon we were ready to go."

Fleury stopped 151 of 161 shots in the series, and allowed just six goals the rest of the way after giving up four in the opener.

"Everybody's stepping up at different times," Fleury said.

Winnipeg got a power play early in the third, but couldn't muster much of anything. The Knights smothered much of the Jets' attack for the next 10 minutes, with Hellebuyck having to come up with big stops on William Karlsson and Eric Haula to keep his team within one.

The Jets pressed with under 4 minutes to go  Jeremy Kerley Jersey , with Fleury stopping captain Blake Wheeler on the doorstep, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Knights closed out their third straight series on the road.

The Jets had the NHL's second-best record with 114 points in the regular season. They advanced to the first conference final in city's history with a five-game victory over the Minnesota Wild in the opening round before topping the Presidents' Trophy-winning Nashville Predators in Game 7 on the road.

The usual raucous, white-clad crowd at Bell MTS Place were silenced just 5:11 into Game 5 when Tuch jumped on Morrissey's turnover and fired his sixth past Hellebuyck.

The Jets were tentative to start and it got worse after the opener as Vegas dominated the next couple of shifts, forcing some good saves from Hellebuyck before Winnipeg got its feet moving.

After being outshot 7-1 in the first 7 minutes, the Jets finally pushed back and turned the tide with the next nine attempts on goal, culminating with Morrissey making amends for his early gaffe with 2:46 left in the period.

Bryan Little won a faceoff in the offensive zone straight back to second-year defenseman, who blasted his first career playoff goal past Fleury's glove.

One of Winnipeg's downfalls in the series through four games was an inability to maintain momentum. The Knights scored within 1:28 of a Jets' goal in each of the first four games – a crushing 12 seconds after Winnipeg tied Game 3, and an equally gut-wrenching 43 seconds after the Jets knotted Game 4 – but they managed to take the game to the locker rooms tied 1-1.

Both teams had chances in the second period before Reaves made it 2-1, with Jets center Mathieu Perrault just missing on a pass from Little that had too much speed.

Right after Reaves scored the second playoff goal of his career – and first since 2015 with St. Louis – Winnipeg's Nikolaj Ehlers rang a shot off the post on Fleury.

NOTES: The Jets were an NHL-best 32-7-2 at home in the regular season, but were a pedestrian 5-4 in the playoffs, including losses in four of their last five post-season outings. …. Winnipeg had won a combined 13 straight at home before dropping a 2-1 decision in Game 4 against Nashville.

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More NHL hockey: The Dallas Cowboys decided linebacker was a bigger priority than receiver even after releasing franchise touchdown catch leader Dez Bryant.

The Cowboys took Leighton Vander Esch of Boise State with the 19th pick in the first round of the draft Thursday night. He walked the stage at his new home field in nearby Arlington, where Dallas was hosting the first draft in an NFL stadium.

"It made me speechless  Alex McGough Jersey ," Vander Esch said. "It's the craziest moment of my life so far."

The Mountain West defensive player of the year will have a chance to start right away alongside 2016 All-Pro Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith, who is getting ready for his second season after sitting out as a rookie following a major knee injury in his final game at Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Vander Esch was fifth in the country in tackles and had three interceptions and four sacks for a defense that ranked 22nd nationally.

All the top receivers were still available when the Cowboys selected, including Alabama's Calvin Ridley, who was Bryant's prediction on Twitter if Dallas went with a receiver.

Instead, the Cowboys picked the position that involved another significant loss in the offseason. Dallas let the versatile and durable Anthony Hitchens go to Kansas City in free agency.

"He was the highest-rated player on our board at the time," coach Jason Garrett said of Vander Esch. "We felt like he fit a need for our football team, but more than that, just someone who can make an impact on our football team."

The Cowboys targeted receivers in free agency, adding Allen Hurns from Jacksonville and journeyman Deonte Thompson. They could go after another pass-catcher in the second or third rounds.

Dallas released Bryant earlier this month in a cost-cutting move after three sub-par seasons since the $70 million, five-year contract he signed following an All-Pro season in 2014. Bryant's 73 touchdowns were more than Hall of Fame receivers Bob Hayes and Michael Irvin.

Vander Esch disputed reports from before the draft that a neck injury had led to concerns for some teams, saying he "hadn't had any neck injuries." His agent has said he sustained a stinger and concussion on the same play early in the 2016 season and missed seven games  Jordan Whitehead Jersey , but said Vander Esch hasn't had any medical issues since then.

"There was nothing," Vander Esch said. "They took like a bad CT scan or something at the combine and some people started talking about it."

The Cowboys didn't hesitate on Vander Esch two years after taking Smith early in the second round knowing he probably wouldn't play as a rookie.

"Our independent doctors as well as our trainers gave him a medical grade that allows us to draft him in the first round," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "I do not stand here concerned about his medical."

A former walk-on from tiny Riggins, Idaho, who played eight-man high school football, Vander Esch had career-high 16 tackles in a triple-overtime loss to Washington State in September.

"It's been an incredible journey thus far," Vander Esch said. "I think (eight-man football) really developed me as a football player. You couldn't come off the field because you had to play both ways. You got in shape real quick. You really learn how to open field tackle."

The Cowboys have a history of taking Boise State defenders. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick played 10 seasons as a fifth-round pick in 2008 before his release this offseason.

Dallas moved up to get defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence early in the second round in 2014, and he finished second in the NFL with 14 1/2 sacks last season. Defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford is going into his seventh year as a third-round choice in 2012.

"You have to be careful about that, ascribing traits to a guy just because of the school that he came from," Garrett said. "But there's something about that program that grows them the right way. It just seems like Leighton is exactly like the rest of them, has a little chip on his shoulder and is a driven guy."

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