Kings, Rangers and Wild triumph in NHL playoff Game Sevens
The Los Angeles Kings completed a storybook comeback from a 3-0 series deficit by beating San Jose 5-1 on Friday, progressing to the second round of the NHL playoffs along with Minnesota and the New York Rangers, who had more nerve-wracking victories.
The Kings' season appeared as good as over when they lost the first three games of the series but three consecutive victories squared at 3-3 and they completed the remarkable comeback in front of San Jose's crowd.
Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Tyler Toffoli, Dustin Brown and Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings, who became the fourth NHL team to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.
The Kings joined Toronto (1942), the New York Islanders (1975) and Philadelphia (2010) as the only teams to do so, and now will get another California showdown in the second-round with a clash with near neighbor Anaheim.
Matt Irwin scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who added perhaps their most bitter playoff disappointment to a litany of them. San Jose has the second most regular-season wins in the NHL over the past 10 seasons but has never made it past the conference finals.
Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game in overtime to give the Wild a 5-4 win over Colorado and a 4-3 series victory.
Minnesota trailed 4-3 before Jared Spurgeon scored on a nifty play with 2:27 left in regulation.
Mikko Koivu and Dany Heatley had the other goals and Ilya Bryzgalov pulled off a big save for the Wild, who won a playoff series for the first time in 11 years, and will face the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago in the second round.
Nick Holden, Jamie McGinn, Paul Stastny and Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche.
New York's Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot scored second-period goals to give the Rangers a 2-1 win over Philadelphia.
The Rangers improved to 6-0 in Game 7s at Madison Square Garden. New York will face another Metropolitan Division rival, Pittsburgh, in the next round starting on Friday.
Colin Horgan's second round preview will be online later