The Stanley Cup Finals are live for Game 2 on Saturday night for the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings and the matchup is on TV from NBC and streaming live online from the NBC Sports Live Extra website and the game starts at 7:15 pm ET at the Staples Center after the Belmont Stakes and this is a must win for NY and LA comes in now with a 1-0 lead and looking to push it 2-0 coming to MSG on Monday night.
The Rangers showed they can handle playing alongside LA in the first game and in the first period they opened up strong, but they could not score another goal after that in the game. Rick Nash needs to step up like the leading goal scorer he once was in Columbus and the Rangers put the Kings back on their heels in the first period with a 2-0 lead and they did not keep that up the rest of the way. The Rangers gave up two goals that could have been avoided and the team did not finish their chances to take a lead in the second or third periods and that led to the overtime period that saw the winning goal.
The Rangers played very well and slowly LA made some adjustments and after the Derek Stepan turnover led to a goal, the overtime goal was allowed after a bad play from Dan Girardi, who missed a clear and that set up a wide open goal from Justin Williams. That score allowed the team to win the game and now the Rangers are hoping to get things back on track heading into Game 2. The Rangers have played well after a loss and they realize this could be the series if they go down 2-0. The Kings will not count the Rangers out no matter what happens, as LA came back from a 3-0 series deficit this season and the Rangers came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Penguins.
The Rangers showed in the first game that they could play with the Kings, but LA showed that they are the better team and now New York knows that not even an 'A' effort is good enough to beat this team, it has to have that plus. The Rangers started things off fast on the first period with goals from Benoit Pouliot and Carl Hagelin to give the team a two goal lead, but they couldn't get out of the first period before the Kings scored a goal. Drew Doughty added a goal on a beautiful individual play through the offensive zone and that tied things up before a tough third period with tons of shots by the Kings and eventually they won the game in overtime after a winning goal from Justin Williams that came after a bad turnover by Dan Girardi.
The Rangers started off their playoff run with a seven game series against the Philadelphia Flyers and that came at home in Madison Square Garden to advance to the second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins and now the team is matched up with the Kings in the finals and it will be on NBC.
