After eight weeks of battle we were down to the last two. The Los Angeles Kings, vying for their 2nd cup in franchise history (and in three seasons), up against the New York Rangers, going for their 5th cup (2nd in 74 years). Coming into this post season the common opinion was whoever won the West would win the cup. As that goes the Los Angeles Kings were heavy favourites with the bookmakers.
GAME 1: Staples Center
Like most cup finals, in all sports, this one started tentative. Neither side wanting to make too many mistakes early on. Just over midway through the 1st period the Rangers opened the scoring after Benoit Pouliot forced an error from Kings defenseman Drew Doughty at the Rangers blue line.
Pouliot skated clear through the neutral zone as Jake Muzzin fell down turning to chase the Rangers forward who went untouched into the Kings zone and slammed a shot high over Jonathan Quick's stick shoulder. The Rangers had a little momentum that even after a Mats Zuccarello holding penalty gave the Kings a power play they scored again when Carl Hagelin dumped and chased by Slava Voynov and had a shot rebound off Quick and into the net off of Voynov's skate.
The Kings came to life before the end of the 1st. The trio of Jeff Carter, Trevor Lewis, and Kyle Clifford hounded the Rangers into mistakes in their zone and eventually Carter found the puck behind the net and slid it to Clifford who flipped it up high behind Henrik Lundqvist.
Just over six minutes into the 2nd period the Kings tied the game. Drew Doughty, who had one of the 2012 finals most memorable goals, received the puck as the late man into the Rangers zone, then deked around Derek Dorsett before firing the puck into the net.
The rest of the night the Kings peppered shots on the Rangers goal as Lundqvist recorded 40 saves.
Photos Courtesy Of Robert E Klutho