Tonight at 10:00 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks skate against each other live from the SAP Center in San Jose for Game 7 of their first-round best-of-seven series as part of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. Los Angeles fans can hear all of the action on Fox Sports 570 while San Jose fans can do the same on KFOX 102.1
Los Angeles looks to become just the fourth team in NHL history to claw its way out of an 0-3 hole to win a series while San Jose looks to avoid being on the wrong side of history and to close up this series on home ice with its fourth attempt to put the series to rest.
The Sharks scored 17 goals while taking the first three games -- all wins -- and four goals in the last three games, which they've dropped, as The Kings have gotten back into the series with three straight victories to force a crucial and pivotal Game 7
Despite being down 3-0, the Kings have never wavered and even looked forward to the challenge of each of the last three elimination games. Now that they're within one win of advancing to face the Anaheim Ducks in the second round, the team couldn't be more elated to play Game 7.
"To be honest, we couldn't wait for the next game .... after Game 3," Kings enter Jarret Stoll told the Los Angeles Times after a 4-1 Game 6 win. "We couldn't wait for Game 4. We couldn't wait for Game 5 and then tonight. That doesn't change. We're excited. We're excited to play a Game 7, always great games, great atmospheres. You want to be the hero in those types of games, play well and be counted on as an important part of something like that."
The Sharks had the second best home-ice record this season while the Kings have only won twice at the SAP Center in their last 14 games, including their Game 5 win, so San Jose has some confidence despite being on the verge of blowing a 3-0 series lead.
"We worked all season to get home-ice advantage, and then coming into tomorrow night, that's why we worked," Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said via NHL.com. "We probably didn't expect to get to Game 7 this way but we knew it was a real possibility of it being there. Looking ahead, it's about a few things we've done all year and we just need to do them."
Pavelski ranks second on the Sharks this series with six points off of two goals and four assists while Patrick Marleau has a team-high seven points off of three tallies and four helpers and Matthew Nieto and James Sheppard have each lit the lamp twice while adding three assists for five points.
Anze Kopitar has the most points in the series with eight to lead the Kings off of three goals and five assists while Drew Doughty has had a tremendous series and is second on the team with six points off of six helpers and Justin Williams (four goals, one assist) and Jeff Carter (two goals, three assists) have five points apiece.
After a long thought process, San Jose coach Todd McLellan has opted to go with Antti Niemi in net after Alex Stalock started Game 6 and appeared in three games in the series. Niemi has allowed 16 goals on 136 shots in five games this series while Jonathan Quick has started all seven games for Los Angeles and has yielded 20 goals while turning aside 183 shots.
The Kings look to make history while the Sharks hope to avoid an epic collapse when the lights come up at the SAP Center for Game 7 of this best-of-seven series as part of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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