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 Needing a victory to extend the best-of-seven series, the Rangers
survived a ferocious fightback from the Kings to win a
heart-pounding Game Four at Madison Square Garden and send the teams
back to California.
Roared on by their long-suffering fans, New York got goals from
Benoit Pouliot and Martin St. Louis while their inspirational
Swedish netminder succeeded in stonewalling the Kings' offense after
he conceded a breakaway goal to the Kings' captain Dustin Brown.
"They threw everything they had at us. Our goaltender stood tall,
gave us a chance," said a relieved New York head coach Alain
Vigneault.
"He had to make some huge saves in the second and the third. He got,
and we got, a few bounces. You need those. Maybe the luck is
changing a little bit."
The odds are still heavily stacked against the Rangers winning
another three consecutive elimination games to capture their first
NHL title since 1994 with the series headed to Los Angeles on Friday
for Game Five.
The Kings clinched their first Stanley Cup title on home ice two
years ago and defenseman Drew Doughty said he was confident his side
could finish things off at home this time.
"We would have liked to finish it tonight but having the next game
back at home, that is where we are comfortable," he said.
"We are in front of our home fans, we are at the Staples Center, we
are on good ice. I'm looking forward to it."
The Blueshirts did at least give themselves a shot when they finally
got some breaks to go their way after losing the first two games in
overtime despite leading each by two goals.
They outshot the Kings by a ratio of 2-1 in Game Three on Monday but
still lost 3-0 with one goal coming off a wicked deflection, but
their fortunes took a change for the better on Wednesday.
This time, the Kings outshot the Rangers 41-19, including 15-1 in a
tense final period, and twice got the puck past Lundqvist only to
see it stop right on the red line before being swiped to safety by
defenseman.
"I've been in the game a long time to know that sometimes the hockey
gods are there," Vigneault said. "They were there tonight."
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New York's opening goal came off a deflection when John Moore rifled
a shot from near the blue line that was redirected by the edge of
Pouliot's raised stick, giving Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick no
real chance of stopping it.
The Kings almost tied the game when Alec Martinez got the puck past
Lundqvist only to see it stop on the line before defenseman Anton
Stralman knocked it away.
"We had a little puck luck tonight but you take those," said St.
Louis. "We didn't play a perfect game but we found a way...and we
got rewarded with our first win."
The Rangers doubled their lead in the second period when St. Louis
stuffed in a rebound but the Kings struck back two minutes later
when Dustin Brown picked up a loose puck and pulled a nifty deke on
Lundqvist.
The Kings, who won each of their first three rounds in seven games,
showed why they remain the most difficult team in the NHL to finish
off as they launched wave after wave of attack.
The tension escalated in the final period when the puck slid past
Lundqvist and on to the line again before a sprawling Derek Stepan
tapped it back into his team mate's pads to avert the danger after
another goal mouth scramble.
"It was a good hockey game. I thought both teams played really
well," said LA coach Darryl Sutter.
"We had a lot of good opportunities, but you've got to finish a
couple of them."
(Reporting by Julian Linden; Editing by Frank Pingue)
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