There was plenty of action in the first period of Game 2, yet there wasn’t a lot of the chaos seen in Game 1’s opening frame. Apparently the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings saved the wild stuff for the second period.
Both Jonathan Quick and Henrik Lundqvist will likely wince at the 2-1 and 4-2 tallies, in particular. Let’s begin with that 2-1 tally.
Before the blinding run of goals
A Brad Richards turnover opened the door for the Kings to quickly reduce the Rangers’ 2-0 lead to a 2-1 margin. Notice Lundqvist and Kevin Klein’s failed attempt to avert disaster:
That actually came early in the period, but things really kicked off midway through.
Trading power-play goals
The Rangers’ power play was starting to become a concern early in this series, yet they broke through in an impressive way. Derek Stepan made a great pass (including drawing a ton of Kings attention) to Martin St. Louis, whose off-balance finish highlighted why the Rangers gave up a big package for him:
Down 3-1, the Kings needed some man-advantage success of their own. They got it thanks to Willie Mitchell’s slapper, which came three minutes and 15 seconds after St. Louis scored:
A sloppy play for the Kings, too
Mitchell didn’t get much time to pat himself on the back after that power-play goal. Eleven seconds after that Mitchell goal, a mishap plus some great work from Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard opened the door for this 4-2 Brassard marker:
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Overall, it was a four-goal second period that included both teams scoring a power-play goal and allowing a head-shaker. Ultimately, the Rangers remain up two (4-2) headed into the final frame.