The Chicago Blackhawks have played well all season since starting the year on a record streak and after defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the first two games of the series, the team took a 3-1 leading heading into Game 5 and after taking a 2-1 lead, Mike Richards was able to tip in a goal with less than 10 seconds left in the game to tie it 2-2 before the Blackhawks won after a goal from Patrick Kane for a hat trick.
The Kings came into the series after defeating the San Jose Sharks in seven games and after going down 3-1 in the series the team was on the brink heading into Game 5. The defending champions won the Stanley Cup last season out of the eighth seed and understand how to win on the road, but the Blackhawks have continued their strong play in the postseason and have proven to be hard to defeat. The game went to overtime at 3-3 after the third goal of the playoffs for the recently returned Mike Richards and the Kings also got goals from Dwight King and Anze Kopitar to tie things up.
The Blackhawks have been getting scoring from up and down the roster and Patrick Kane came through big in Game 5 with two goals, while Duncan Keith also scored in the game as Chicago jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The Kings are a team that is tough to defeat and they do not give up easily and that is how they were able to tie the game with such little time left, as they were able to get goalie Jonathan Quick out of the goal to get an extra attacker as time expired. The Kings were able to win Game 3 to get the series to 2-1 after dropping the first two in the Conference Finals and after scoring one goal on each of the three periods, they won the matchup 3-1. Quick finished with 19 saves and the team put three behind Corey Crawford, who finished with 25 saves. King, Slava Voynov and Justin Williams all scored in that game, while Bryan Bickell continued his strong play with his seventh goal in that game.
The Blackhawks rebounded from that loss with a 3-2 win in Game 4 to take a commanding lead in the series and the Kings were left with no choice but to play aggressive. The Blackhawks got three goals out of three different players and one in each period, including the eighth from Bickell in the postseason as well as scores from Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa. The Kings got goals from Dustin Penner and Voynov, but it wasn't enough to win and they went down 3-1 in the series. Quick finished the game with 25 saves, while Crawford ended up with 19 in the loss.
The Kings and Blackhawks have both won games in overtime and Brent Seabrook was the hero for the Blackhawks against the Red Wings in Game 7 to send the Blackhawks into the Western conference finals. The Bruins completely demolished the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern finals with a series sweep at 4-0 nothing after winning on Friday in Game 4 and now the team is in the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in three seasons after winning the Cup two years ago. The team held back Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and held them to zero points in the series and that was a huge issue for the Penguins, including in one of the games when they lost 6-1 and was forced to pull goalie Tomas Vokoun, as he made just nine saves and allowed four goals in the first period. The Kings are trying to get back to the Stanley Cup finals for the second straight season, while the Blackhawks are looking to get back to the finals after winning the championship a few years ago.
