Thursday night saw one playoff series begin and another continue with an exciting Game 2. Here are all the highlights, GIF-style!
2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs nightly GIF recap: Late victories for Bruins and Kings
Another overtime for Boston, a battle in California, and sweet hockey GIFs: what else do you need?
In Boston, the Bruins and Rangers played 30 minutes without a goal, then scored four within a 10-minute span, then played another 30 minutes without a goal before Brad Marchand won Game 1 in overtime on a perfect feed from Patrice Bergeron.
Forcing the Bruins and Rangers to waste 15 minutes of overtime seems silly when Johnny Boychuk could have ended it in the last tick of the clock in regulation:
Before all that, they exchange a pair of goals each, including a wobbler by Zdeno Chara that Henrik Lundqvist helped over the line.
Lundqvist didn’t look so hot on that play. He looked better in the first period when he used off a yoga pose to cover this puck behind him:
The Rangers scored their goals in a 17-second span separated by the second intermission. First Ryan McDonagh scored with 1.3 seconds left in the second period. Then Derek Stepan gave them a lead 14 seconds into the third.
Earlier in the game, Johnny Boychuk took a hit from Taylor Pyatt that slammed Boychuk's head against the boards.
In other near-disaster scenarios, Michael Del Zotto is lucky he turned after deflecting this Bergeron shot.
And Lundqvist wasn't alone in benefiting from friendly iron. Tuukka Rask needed his crossbar too:
Out in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks were looking to even their series with the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2, but didn't get off to a great start after Jeff Carter scored on the Kings' first shot of the game:
But San Jose would finally manage to put the puck past Quick midway through the second on a sweet passing play that resulted in a Patrick Marleau goal:
Jeff Carter took a charging penalty for this crushing hit on Marc-Edouard Vlasic:
The Kings would have a scary moment of their own when Anze Kopitar took a puck to the face:
Kopitar would miss about half of the third period before returning.
Vlasic seemed to be okay after that hard hit from Carter, and would score his first playoff goal to put the Sharks ahead 3-2 in the third:
But in a stunning turn of events, the Kings would convert twice on the power play in the final minutes of the third to tie and then take the lead:
The Kings won the game 4-3, and head to San Jose up 2-0 in the series.
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