Kings Of The Road: L.A. Keeps Perfect Playoff Road Record Alive

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is that Game 2 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals avoided the typical ratings drop sporting events take when they go from weeknights to a Saturday game. The bad news is that those ratings from the weeknight Game 1 were pretty terrible to begin with.

DISCLAIMER: Before we start this up: these are fast national ratings that do not count the West Coast when it deals with live programming. So this number will very likely go up when the final ratings come in at some point early next week.

Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, it appears, drew fewer viewers than Game 1.

For a second consecutive contest, the netminder appears to be squarely inside the heads of the Devils’ shooters. Just as it was obvious that New Jersey was shooting high in Game 1, Game 2 saw another trend.

Unlike the first game’s meager shot total of 17, Game 2 saw a much more concerted offensive attack. N.J. sent 30 shots towards the Kings’ goal through regulation time, and three more in the overtime period.

Daryl Sutter hasn’t ever been necessarily known for big displays of emotion, but you can tell that the Los Angeles Kings coach is very pleased with his team finding a way to win two hard-fought overtime games to lead the Stanley Cup Finals 2-0 headed back to the Staples Center for Game 3 Monday night.

Sutter was almost downright effusive in praise of his team, though he could have just been trying not to waste words with his team heading for the bus to get back home to Southern California tonight. He responded bluntly, and with a smirk on his face, to inquiries about how his team played, saying, “I thought it was a hell of a battle. What did you think? Were you happy with how our team played tonight? Tough building. You just finished playing a team with the most home wins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that played hard.”

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles .

Doesn’t this feel a bit familiar?

Los Angeles -- with a 1-0 series lead -- will need overtime with the New Jersey Devils to settle the score of Game 2.

Suddenly, the Devils are back to life. A once-dead Prudential Center is rocking again, and it’s all thanks to the energy brought by New Jersey’s fourth line. First, Ryan Carter tied the game with a beautiful deflection goal, and now Stephen Gionta’s crushed Colin Fraser along the wall.

It’s not just that we have a hockey game on our hands now. We also have a series on our hands.

They found their fourth line with one game left in the regular season, and it continues to pay dividends into the Finals, as Ryan Carter’s tip-in goal tied Game 2 at 1-1 at 2:59 of the third.

Carter deflected a Marek Zidlicky shot from the point — essentially, succeeding on the Devils strategy all night — and beat Jonathan Quick after a good Kings start to the period.

Jonathan Quick has been in the head of everyone in the entire Western Conference throughout the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and now it’s the New Jersey Devils turn to fight off the demons. Quick has stopped 20 of 20 shots through two periods, as Drew Doughty’s goal remains the only one of the game after the second frame.

New Jersey continued to control the territory, though the shots on goal were even at nine. The Devils had another poor power play, one that elicited boos from the sold out Prudential Center in Newark. They continued getting chances off the rush on Quick, but New Jersey has chosen to go for deflections instead of Game 1’s “shoot high all the time” gameplan. It still hasn’t worked, as Anton Volchenkov’s fluke goal in Game 1 remains the only one.

Devils fans wanted a penalty called against Willie Mitchell for this high-stick on David Clarkson, which seemed to catch the New Jersey forward right in the eye. But when you’re taking a shot or following through on a shot, there’s no such thing as a high-stick, and that’s unfortunate for the Devils and their fans.

Oh, and Clarkson’s eye, too.

The Kings just got done with an awesome power play. Pierre McGuire called it a clinic, and that’s a pretty apt description. The Kings are bragging about it on Twitter, naturally, as they do.

The power play was forced by this Dwight King high stick on Jacob Josefson, and while his team couldn’t do anything on the power play, there’s something to be said for his remarkable ability to basically skate through a stick to the face without flinching.

Martin Brodeur got beaten blocker side by Drew Doughty in the first period, but he’s held steady since then, including this vintage glove save on Justin Williams.

The Devils probably played a better period than any individual period they played in Game 1, outshooting the Kings 10-6, but the Kings got something extraordinary from Drew Doughty to lead 1-0 through 20 in Game 2 in Newark.

Doughty made an exceptional, end-to-end rush, beating one of his own players and Devils forward Ryan Carter, before using Bryce Salvador as a screen to shoot past Martin Brodeur blocker side.

One noticeable difference between Games 1 and 2: the ice at Prudential Center sucks considerably less tonight as compared to Wednesday. Who knows what they did to fix things, but the puck no longer appears to be a tennis ball.

It is hard to say which team benefits the most. Perhaps it made an impact on Drew Doughty’s opening goal, after which he danced past Stephen Gionta before finessing his way to a great shooting position?

The Los Angeles Kings didn’t have a great start. They got out-worked and heavily forechecked by the New Jersey Devils and had to kill a penalty. Drew Doughty, however, took things into his own hands and LA got the game’s first goal.

Doughty came out of his own end, got by one of his own prone teammates, abused Ryan Carter, and went blocker side on Martin Brodeur to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead.

Stick with SB Nation’s dedicated NHL hub for full Stanley Cup finals coverage. For more on the New Jersey Devils, check out Devils blog In Lou We Trust. For more on the Los Angeles Kings, check out Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles.

The skaters on the ice for warmups confirmed for us what we’ve been speculating for what feels like days: no lineup changes for either team.

The Kings will start the game-winning Williams-Kopitar-Brown line with Drew Doughty and Rob Scuderi on defense.

Continuing their dominance in the faceoff circle and forcing giveaways should help set the stage for their preferred style of offense, but it would be helpful if L.A.‘s struggling power play might make an appearance. At just eight percent, it is not the worst this postseason (that honor goes to Chicago’s meager five-percent effort), but they are the only team with a PP below 12% who advanced beyond the first round.

With their incredible road record this postseason, it would not be shocking to see the Kings claim another victory, but they cannot relax. Too much is still in flux, and the Devils are far too experienced a team to be dismissed after only one loss in this series.

Radiohead played the Prudential Center the last two nights, so the ice could potentially be questionable, but it’s much less humid than it was on Wednesday here in Newark, so hopefully conditions improve.

Schedule and broadcast information for Game 2:

Los Angeles Kings at New Jersey Devils

8 p.m. ET -- Game 2, Stanley Cup Final | Kings lead, 1-0

National TV: NBC, CBC, RDS