This marks the first time in two years the Los Angeles Kings face playoff elimination, as the Stanley Cup Champions host the San Jose Sharks in a decisive Game 7 in the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

The Kings had a chance to close out the series on the road in Game 6, but fell 2-1, shifting the pressure back onto Los Angeles for this decisive Game 7. The home team has won every game in the series thus far and prevailed in all four regular season games.

The Kings have been led this postseason by the strong play of goaltender Jonathan Quick, who has a stellar 1.54 goals against average and a .947 save percentage. Meanwhile, a pair of former Flyers is at the top of the Kings scoring, as Mike Richards has two goals and eight assists for 10 points and Jeff Carter has five goals and three assists.

San Jose has also gotten strong goaltending from Antti Niemi, a former Stanley Cup Champion with the Blackhawks. Niemi has a 1.85 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. In game sevens, goaltending is always critical, so that matchup could be key.

Offensively, Joe Pavelski has four goals and seven assists for the Sharks, while Logan Couture has five goals and six assists. Joe Thornton has been a key setup man with two goals and eight assists, while Patrick Marleau has scored five times and set up teammates on three occasions.

The winner of this series earns the opportunity to advance to the Western Conference Finals to challenge the victor of another Game 7, between the Blackhawks and Red Wings. Many say that there is nothing more exciting in sports than a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so don’t miss out on your chance to see one live in Los Angeles.

Tickets are still available, but they’ll likely go quick between now and faceoff when fans will pack the seats to see the last game of the season for one of these two teams and the next step toward the Stanley Cup for the other.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 at 8:00 am and is filed under NHL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.