KINGS OFTHE NHL
Los Angeles 6, New Jersey 1
A decisive 6-1 win over the New Jersey Devils makes the Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup champions for the first time.
LOS ANGELES — At one point in the second period of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final, the camera caught New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano (actor James Gandolfini) in the stands at Staples Center.
It looked like he was on his phone.
New Jersey Devils forward Steve Bernier might want to use his remote car starter for a while.
Bernier took what turned out to be the pivotal penalty of the final, a five-minute boarding major during which the Los Angeles Kings scored three times in the first period to send them on their way to a 6-1 win and the first Stanley Cup in the franchise’s 45-year history.
Bernier barrelled into Kings defence man Rob Scuderi, crunching him into the endboards 10 minutes into a scoreless first period.
Scuderi turned a bit into the hit, exposing his back, but Bernier was hurtling in there like a freight train and was likely going to get at the very least a boarding minor simply for the force of the hit.
Scuderi’s face looked like it bounced off the dasher and he was cut on the play, resulting in the major and a game misconduct.
The Kings power play got goals from captain Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter (his first of two on the night) and Trevor Lewis (his first of two) to put them in control of the game and helping them keep their date with destiny.
It was just the kind of opportunity a Kings team, which had looked nervous in its two previous attempts to close out the series, needed to get over the hump.
Brown started it with a nifty redirection of a pass by defence-man Drew Doughty that slipped between the pads of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur.
Carter tipped a shot by Brown after he had circled out into the slot and Lewis banged home a rebound after Kings forward Dwight King had gone hard to the net.
It’s a quirky stat, but this was the first time in the 26 times a team had taken a 3-0 lead in the Cup final that the series ended in six games.
Teams had swept 20 times, won in five games three times and the two other times when a team had a 3-0 lead the final went to seven games (in 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs overcame a 3-0 Detroit Red Wings lead to win the Cup and three years later, the Leafs were up 3-0 and wound up beating the Wings in seven games).
This also marked the first time in the last five seasons the Cup was awarded on home ice.
It was the first time an eighth seed won the Stanley Cup, capping a remarkable and unlikely story for a Kings team that came into the season with high expectations, but struggled offensively (winding up 29th in the league).
It was a season of bold and dramatic moves by general manager Dean Lombardi. Coach Terry Murray was fired in December and replaced by Darryl Sutter, a move that was second guessed because of Sutter’s reputation for being a taskmaster, but he proved to be just what the Kings needed.
Lombardi also made a controversial trade in February to get Carter, reuniting him with centre Mike Richards, his old running mate from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The addition of Carter, who had eight goals in the post-season, gave the Kings some offensive depth.
So, the Cup will come to Southern California for the second time in five years (the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim won it in 2007) and for a little while, maybe they will call it Hockeywood.
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca