Kings Win! The Playoffs Are Over!

The Stanley Cup was in the house for a second night on Friday and I could imagine that it didn't really want to make the cross-country trek to the East Coast either.

Under their own roof, the Los Angeles Kings managed to overcome a ridiculously solid Henrik Lundqvist in the New York Rangers net in double overtime in Game Five to win hockey's greatest prize.  The second Cup for the Kings in the last three years.

Game Five was a pretty good mix of momentum swings, offensive rushes going both ways and some amazing goaltending.

The 1st period was about the Kings pressure on the Rangers, as they looked like the team that wanted to end it right away and it was a Justin Williams backhander that opened up the scoring, making it 1-0 after the opening frame.

The 2nd period saw a bit more Kings pressure, but the Rangers didn't want to be denied in the middle frame.   Chris Kreider capitalized on a Dwight King penalty to tie the game up at 1-1 and then shortly after, during a Kings power play, Brian Boyle scored a beauty, far post shelf, shorthanded for a Rangers lead at the break.

Of course, in the final frame, the Kings were not going to be denied.  Heading into the 3rd period, the Kings had only allowed 12 shots on Jonathan Quick, so like you would assume (or would you?), they tightened up the ship even more and poured on the offense in the Rangers zone.  Sure enough, a silly Mats Zuccarello penalty was enough to get the Kings back on level pegging, as Marian Gaborik cleaned up in front of the net, tying the game up with a garbage pick-up stop.

After tying up the game, there wasn't stopping how much pressure the Kings had on Lundqvist and the Rangers, but Lundqvist did have all the answers in the rest of the regulation period, sending the game into overtime.

If you weren't entertained by the first 60 minutes of the game, then you had to have been by the first overtime.  Sure, no one scored and we needed to go to another period, but that was some firewagon hockey, charging back and forth, up and down the ice, chances at both ends.  It was more like both teams wanting to win, rather than not to lose.  In the first overtime, the Kings outshot the Rangers, 13-10.  The Rangers almost had as many shots in the overtime than they did in all of regulation, giving you an indication of just how open it was.

With just over five minutes to go in the second overtime period, another one of those great rushes up the ice played out in a textbook fashion for the Los Angeles Kings, as a Tyler Toffoli shot hit Lundqvist in the right leg pad, kicking out a fat rebound to an on-rushing Alec Martinez, who was unmarked down the wing, leaving him to score his third game-winner of these playoffs... Kings win!

I would say that Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals was likely the better game, but another double overtime game in the Finals was a good finish to a long season and playoffs.  Congratulations to the Kings for their victory.

Game Five's notable players... Alec Martinez with the winner and Jonathan Quick with the win.  Those were the only two that came up with multiple points in the clincher, each coming away with 2 points a piece.

It was certainly a well-deserved honour for Justin Williams to come away with the Conn Smythe Trophy, as his clutch play for the Kings was rewarded with some serious recognition.

In the hockey pool, the MVP was Quick, as his 16 wins and 2 shutouts were good enough for 36 points, a good 7 points clear of Lundqvist in pool scoring.  The top scoring skater in the hockey pool was indeed Williams, who took the tie-breaker over teammate Anze Kopitar, both finishing with 27 points.

Chicago Blackhawks forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were the best players, in terms of game-winners, each coming away with 4 bonus points each.

Well, now is the best time to be a pool manager, as you get to make some people happy with some prize money.  The prizes were announced nearly six weeks ago already and now I get to announce our winners.  I will likely be sending money via the Interac Money Transfers over the next few days, so hold tight, we'll get everyone all sorted out.

First of all, a hearty congratulations to Travis G., who finished the pool with 266 points, finishing with a strong 21-point effort in the Stanley Cup Finals, defending his position over Corey M. and Gus M.'s first team, each finishing with 262 points.  Corey's team takes 2nd place on the goals scored tie-breaker, as his team topped Gus' 66-57.  Don't feel too bad for Gus, as his second team finished in 4th place, in an unprecedented result, as no one has ever won prizes with each of the two teams they entered, but Gus went with a gut feeling, obviously, and came away with two prizes.

Travis will walk away with $300, Corey will receive $100 and for 3rd & 4th place, Gus will receive $70.  Another congratulations to our winners.

Bring on the off-season!  The time to get ready for next year's hockey pool draft starts now...