The NY Rangers and LA Kings are playing the Stanley Cup finals on Monday night and the playoffs game starts at 8 pm ET from Madison Square Garden and the matchup is streaming live on the NBC Sports Network with a live stream from NBCSN Live Extra online and it is a must-win game for the Blueshirts as the series shifts to New York with Los Angeles up 2-0 after two overtime wins at the Staples Center.
The Kings were basically gift wrapped Game 2 after getting a goal that should have been disallowed late in the game and that allowed the team to come back and they eventually won in overtime after another blown and terrible call from the refs. The Kings have not led in regulation in this game and the Rangers have dominated the play and the Kings have simply not given up at all and they also have had the benefit of getting every important call and that makes it much easier for the team to win when they get goals that should not count. The team is up 2-0 and now as things head to MSG the Rangers have no choice but to take things one game at a time.
The Rangers have now lost two games in overtime to the Kings and LA has been like a zombie that will just not stop, as they came back from two goals down again in the second straight game and this comes after Los Angeles rallied from a 3-0 deficit against the Sharks in the first round. The Rangers head back to MSG down 2-0 in the series and now Game 3 will be on Monday, June 8 and Game 4 is on Wednesday, June 11 and the Rangers have to win the next matchup or they will go down 3-0 in the series.
The Rangers have now not won a Stanley Cup finals game since 1994 when they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 to win the Cup and it has been 20 years since the Garden hosted a game for the Cup. Game 3 has set records for ticket prices and Game 5 of the series shifts back to LA and the Staples Center on Friday, June 13. Jonathan Quick made some strong saves in Game 2 and so did Henrik Lundqvist, but the final goal could not be corralled and now the Rangers have no margin for error the rest of the way.
The Rangers penalty kill has been strong and the team got some nice goals from Martin St. Louis and Ryan McDonagh, while Mats Zuccarello was all over the place and had one goal and one assist in the matchup. Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said his team knows what Game 3 means and that they will be ready to play and that there is not much other choice but to try and win out. The Kings have shown they can score at will and when the referees give you every call, that makes things much easier. The Rangers rallied back from a 3-1 deficit against the Penguins and that is the type of series they will have to play now that they are down.
Check here for the NY Rangers and LA Kings live coverage from NBC and the NBC Sports Network for the Stanley Cup playoffs.