Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kings prevail in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final

06/04/2014 at 11:28pm EDT

The curse of the two-goal lead and/or perhaps some delayed jet-lag setting in? The Los Angeles Kings fell behind 2-0 against the New York Rangers, who had rest on their side coming into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, but after the Kings rallied to tie the game 2-2, the Kings came out with legs full of lead in the 3rd period, getting out-shot 20-3, and while Henrik Lundqvist stopped almost everything he saw, he wasn't able to steal this snipe shot by Justin Williams 4:36 into OT (Dan Girardi had a terrible giveaway, and his teammates all "flew by" and skated the other way, yielding a mini one-on-none):

The Kings prevailed 3-2 despite Lundqvist's 40-save performance, and now things get interesting: the Kings won the first game, which supposedly garners you a 77% chance of winning the Stanley Cup, but both Los Angeles, which had two days to turn around after beating the Hawks, and the Rangers, who had nearly a week off before taking their cross-continental flight on Monday, will BOTH be able to re-set and refocus in a big way as Game 2 doesn't take place until Saturday (7 PM EDT start).

Does momentum transfer from game to game, or will the series essentially re-set after two days of rest and recuperation for both clearly mentally and physically exhausted teams, at least given their play over the first 40 or so minutes?

We'll find out on Saturday night.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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