LOS ANGELES – The end came in a blur, as the end always does when you wander into the fickle netherworld of playoff overtime. Four minutes and 36 seconds into the extra time, Dan Girardi was on his knees, and suddenly the puck was on the blade of a Los Angeles winger named Justin Williams.
By rights, the Rangers should already have been savoring a Game 1 win. By rights, the way they'd dominated the early portion of the game, and the way Henrik Lundqvist had dominated late, they should already have had a one-game lead in this Stanley Cup final, should already have stolen the road game they'll need to add a fifth banner to their Garden collection.
But as much as the Rangers believe they are destiny's darlings in these playoffs … well, so do the Kings. And now the puck was off Williams' stick, and it was past Lundqvist, and the Kings had themselves a 3-2 win that sent a rattle through downtown and a shiver down the spine of the Rangers.
For so much of the third period, the crowd seemed like it was simply waiting for what seemed like the inevitable: a Kings goal, at exactly the right time, the way so many Kings goals have arrived at exactly the right time across their long, strange, maxed-out playoff ride.
Wave after wave they came after Lundqvist; wave after wave, shift after shift, the first 11 shots of the period, the ice tilted toward the King, the King repelling all comers. And never was he more brilliant than at the end of the period, the Kings on a power play, the crowd of 18,399 in an absolute, uncontrollable lather.
Time after time, he stoned them.
Shot after shot, he shunted away.
And so there would be free hockey, and why not? If those first 60 minutes were any indication, this is going to be a hell of a series, a hell of a way to cap a wonderful Cup run, in either conference, on either coast.
Destiny versus destiny doesn't always make a lot of sense, but that's what we had as these two titans collided, the Kings surviving an 0-3 hole to the Sharks in the first round, the Rangers surviving 1-3 down to the Penguins in the second, five Game 7 victories between the teams, four of them on the road.
Destiny versus destiny.
And for a time, it seemed like the blue-tinted version was going to carry the night, the Rangers stapling shut the Staples Center gathering, scoring twice within 102 seconds of the first period. Benoit Pouliot cracked the ice with a breakaway dash, beating Jonathan Quick, and the Rangers had the jump.
But it was the next goal that seemed to send the sternest message, the Kings finally gaining a power-play advantage, finally re-connecting with the crowd, and suddenly that was all gone, Carl Hagelin scoring his second shorthanded goal of the playoffs and giving the Rangers a 2-0 edge.
Maybe there was something in the New York air. Back in New York, the Yankees were busy squandering a four-run lead; in Chicago, the Mets were wasting an early three-run cushion. And so back came the Kings, and poof went the lead. Kyle Clifford got the Kings on the board just before the end of the period, and then Drew Doughty drew them even 6:36 into the second, and now Staples Center was back in full voice and the crowd was back in full swagger.
It's a different kind of LA crowd at Staples when these Kings play, maybe not so surprising given that it's a hockey crowd and hockey crowds by their very nature aren't exactly wilting violets. There was also a pretty good scoreboard reaction after both goals, as they played the old Sasson commercials featuring Phil Esposito and Ron Duguay. Of course, by game's end, nobody on the Rangers much felt like laughing.
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