NY Rangers @ Los Angeles 2-3 OT - Kings Lead Series 1-0
When you're clutch, the puck finds you at the
right time, in the right spot, and you deliver. Justin
Williams has been clutch for the Kings throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was again
Wednesday, delivering the winning goal 4:36 into overtime to lift the
Kings to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against the Rangers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Staples
Center. New York defenseman Dan
Girardi whiffed on a first clearing attempt while on his knees,
and on his second try he put it right on the stick of Kings center
Mike Richards,
who found Williams alone in the slot, and he wasn't going to miss
from there. Williams beat Rangers goalie Henrik
Lundqvist with a stick-side shot for his second game-winner and
eighth goal of the postseason. All of his goals have come in Kings'
victories, including two in their past two Game 7s. Williams has
career-highs for goals (8), assists (12) and points (20) this
postseason. The Kings also won in overtime in Game 1 of the 2012
Stanley Cup Final against the New Jersey Devils (2-1); they won that
series in six games. Los Angeles has won six straight series after
taking a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 of this best-of-7 series is
Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, RDS). For the Kings, it was just
another two-goal deficit, not the end of the world. They fell behind
2-0 on Wednesday, just as they did three times against the Chicago
Blackhawks in the Western Conference Final. They have rallied to tie
every one of those games, and have won three of them.
In all, it was
their fourth win this spring after trailing by two goals, the most by
any team in one playoff year since the Philadelphia Flyers did it
five times in 1987. Goals by Clifford late in the first period and
Doughty early in the second erased the deficit after Rangers forwards
Benoit Pouliot
and Carl
Hagelin scored 1:42 apart in the first. Los Angeles had a chance
to get it done in overtime because they suffocated the Rangers in the
third period, then got a timely save from goalie Jonathan
Quick with 41 seconds remaining in regulation. The Kings outshot
the Rangers 14-0 through the first 11:43 of the third period and 20-3
in the period. But Lundqvist stopped every shot and Hagelin appeared
to have the winner on his stick when he went in for a shorthanded
breakaway, only to have Quick deny him with a glove save. The Kings
were better once they figured out how to deal with the Rangers'
stunning speed. Pouliot scored a breakaway goal at 13:21 of the first
period after stripping the puck from Doughty at the Rangers' blue
line. Hagelin then used his speed to blow past Kings defenseman Slava
Voynov and score a shorthanded goal 102 seconds later. Quick made
the initial save, but the puck went in off of Voynov's skate. But
Clifford scored 2:30 after Hagelin's goal, then had the secondary
assist on Doughty's game-tying goal at 6:36 of the second period. He
also made a fine defensive play with a stick-on-puck diving poke
check to stop yet another breakaway attempt by Hagelin late in the
second. Clifford's goal was his first in 37 playoff games, dating to
April 23, 2011, and his first of any kind since Dec. 11, 2013.
Doughty, who admittedly lost his cool after his turnover led to
Pouliot's goal, got it all back for the Kings with a goal that was a
picture of skill and poise. It also involved Clifford and Williams.
Clifford sent Williams into the right side of the Rangers' zone with
a long stretch pass from the far left-wing half wall. Williams curled
back, looking for the trailer, and found Doughty in stride with a
backhand pass. Doughty put the puck through his legs to get around
the outstretched stick of Rangers forward Derek
Dorsett. He was going at full speed, but he abruptly stopped at
the bottom of the left circle and beat Lundqvist with a near-side
shot through a hole between the goalie's right arm and right side.
Doughty had plenty of time and room in front of him to beat
Lundqvist, but the Rangers' goalie said he could have played it
better. He admitted he could have played Williams' winner better too,
even though it was directly off a turnover and Williams was alone in
the slot.
Kyle
Clifford said of Williams: "We've always known he's
'Captain Clutch."
Drew Doughty: "I've said this many times:
Justin is the most underrated player on our team by a mile, he
doesn't get enough credit for what he does. There are two guys on
this team that I want to give the puck to, and that's him and [Anze
Kopitar]. When they have the puck plays happen. When I get angry
I kind of turn it on, I try to throw my emotions in the right way.
Yeah, it's a bad turnover. I wasn't happy with myself. I didn't want
to try to do too much to make up for it. I had to be a better player
than I was on that play."
Marc Staal: "It's just one game, not the
end of the world."
Williams: "It certainly helps that we've
done it time and time again. It's a great result of the hockey game
for us, definitely, but we have a lot of things to clean up.
Certainly [this was] not our best game by any standards, especially
ours. But we were able to get it done. That's the most important
thing. Making that 2-1 gives us a little bit of a step towards
getting it all the way back."
Hagelin: "The puck was rolling the whole
way so I just tried to get a good shot off, which I did. He made a
good save." Quick called it a "lucky" save.
Richards: "We found a way to win, but I
think everybody wants to forget about this game. Even though we got
the win, it's not the poster way to win hockey games in the playoffs.
Give us credit, we found a way to win. They're a good team, they
played us hard, but we have to be better."
Lundqvist: "But it's always easy to look
back here and have the right answer. It's disappointing, but at the
same time it's just one game. We will come back here with a strong
performance in the next one."
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