Tonight at 10:00 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks hit the ice at the Honda Center in Anaheim for Game 2 of their Round 2 best-of-seven series as part of the 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 Anaheim fans can do the same on KLAA 830.
Los Angeles looks to keep the momentum going from a huge Game 1 overtime win after tying the game late in the third period and hopes to take a 2-0 lead home with them when the series continues in Los Angeles while Anaheim is in search of a bounce back effort after a heart-breaker in Game 1 and nod things up before heading to the home of their southern California rivals.
The Ducks were just over seven seconds away from a 2-1 win when Marian Gaborik nodded the game at two goals apiece to bring the game to overtime, where Gaborik struck once more to give Los Angeles a 1-0 series lead.
The Kings struggled to score leading into the Sochi Olympic break and acquired Gaborik shortly after the Sochi Games at the trade deadline to solve that problem. The team now finds itself tied for second with 3.62 goals per game thus far in the playoffs.
"I think it's no secret we were struggling with scoring before the Olympic break," defenseman Alec Martinez said per NHL.com. "I think that was one of the focuses when we got back was to generate more shots and generate more opportunities from those shots. I think it was just a focus and we're getting scoring from a lot of different guys."
Martinez scored the Kings first goal in Game 1, a tally that Gaborik assisted on before going on to score Los Angeles' other two goals.
Gaborik (team-high five goals, three assists) is tied for second on the team with defenseman Drew Doughty (one tally, seven helpers) with eight points while Anze Kopitar has paced the team with a playoff-best 13 points by finding the twine four times and adding nine assists.
Despite the Ducks playing a very good game, they were unable to cash in on most of their opportunities in Game 1.
"There's an old saying: You got to make hay when the sun shines," head coach Bruce Boudreau told NHL.com. "When you get your chances, you got to put them in, and we didn't put them in. It doesn't mean it was a bad game."
The Ducks received goals from Teemu Selanne and Matt Beleskey during Game 1 but couldn't hang on. Anaheim has been paced by its captain as Ryan Getzlaf has a team-best nine points off of three goals and six assists while Corey Perry has seven points off of two markers and five helpers and Patrick Maroon is third on the team with five playoff points by lighting the lamp once and adding four assists.
Jonas Hiller will likely suit up again for Anaheim after stopping 33 shots and allowing three goals in Game 1 to bring his postseason record this year to 1-1 with a 1.59 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage. Jonathan Quick backstopped Los Angeles to a victory Saturday night by yielding just two goals and turning aside 33 shots. Quick is 5-3 with a 2.89 GAA and a .917 save percentage this postseason.
The battle of California rages on when the puck drops on the Kings and Ducks for Game 2 of their Round 2 series live from the Honda Center in Anaheim as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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