Top 10 LA Kings Playoff Series – Part One

Number 10  –  2014 Western Conference Semi-final – “The Freeway Series” – Los Angeles Kings vs Anaheim Ducks

It still feels like yesterday that the long anticipated freeway series showdown between interstate 5 rivals, the Kings and the Ducks finally happened as they finally faced off against each other with high stakes on the line and boy it did not disappoint! (unless you’re a Ducks fan of course).  Whether you’re a fan of the winning side or the losing side, we all can agree this series was truly epic! The Ducks looked in control early in game 1 only to have Marian Gaborik fly out of nowhere and snatch the victory away from their grip by tying the game with 7 seconds left and then he and Anze Kopitar teamed up to score the winner in overtime.  The Kings took a 2-0 lead in the series but lost the next 3 games to the Ducks including a 2-0 shutout loss to rookie goaltender John Gibson.  The Kings came back to tie the series at 3 and then invaded the Honda (Ponda) Center in Anaheim to win game 7 and the series which gave every Kings’ fan bragging rights to say to any Duck’s fan that we beat them in our first ever playoff meeting.  The victory sent the Kings into the Western Conference Final for the third straight season which became a franchise record.  This also turned out to be future Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne‘s (and as we found out later, Saku Koivu‘s) last ever game and the Kings showed a touch of class by staying on the ice and tapping their sticks in tribute to the legend. Epic! I’m sure we all won’t have to wait as long for these two teams to battle each other again in the playoffs and like this first encounter, it was also be epic!