CHICAGO -- The Los Angeles Kings completed one of the most remarkable runs to the Stanley Cup Final with their Game 7 overtime victory Sunday.
Los Angeles dethroned the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in an epic seven-game Western Conference Final. It was the third consecutive seven-game survival for the Kings, and they became the first team to win three Game 7s on the road in one postseason as well as the first to play 21 games in the first three rounds and still advance to the Cup Final.
What made it even more remarkable was the quality of competition in Los Angeles' path. While the Kings defeated the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the Western Conference en route to the Stanley Cup in 2012 and did so by racing out to a 3-0 lead in each series, the journey to the 2014 Final was unquestionably harder.
The San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Blackhawks finished the regular season with a combined 334 points. For perspective, the top three seeds in the West in 2012 combined for 317 points.