Regal come-back

I didn't get to see anywhere near all of last night's Kings/Rangers second game.  I turned it on a couple minutes into the third, with the score 4-3 Rangers.  That was quite a surprise, and the even bigger surprise was when I found out (soon after) that the period had started 4-2 Rangers.

I watched for a couple minutes, seeing that the Kings seemed to be dominating, again.  But I needed to leave the room for a few minutes to put my oldest daughter to bed, and came back to seeing a tied game.

So the Kings scored twice in the period (and continued to dominate from appearances, although the Rangers did get a couple of good chances), and I didn't see either one.  But I didn't see the Rangers score either, as they didn't (though they did get a good chance just as time expired.

So into overtime the game went (this is getting to be quite the theme).

It felt, watching, like the Kings were dominating again, although the Fenwick count had the Rangers ahead by one.  Unfortunately, I don't have a Corsi count; it could easily be that the Kings were ahead on Corsi, but the Rangers blocked enough shots to be ahead by a hair on Fenwick.

But, more importantly, nobody found the back of the net; both goalies did their jobs.

So into double overtime it went, where the Kings had an even bigger edge.  And the game ended in the eleventh minute, when Willie Mitchell wristed it towards the net from the left point.  The shot was going wide, but Dustin Brown deflected it back on net, and under Lundqvist's arm to finally break the tie (that had lasted about forty-two minutes).

It was quite the finish to the game that had gone on so long.

I'm not sure who has looked better, overall.  The Kings have certainly looked better in the parts of the two games that I've watched (and it hasn't been close), but the Rangers have definitely done better (in both scoring and chances) in other parts of the two games.  Plus, the Kings only held serve at home by coming back from two-goal deficits in both games.  So they certainly weren't dominating on the scoreboard.

I'll stick with my pre-series prediction of the Kings winning, but I no longer think a sweep is likely, even if it hasn't been yet ruled out.  We'll see what happens at the Garden, I guess.