what a game!

The Los Angeles Kings swept the St. Louis Blues this afternoon to advance to the Western Conference Finals for only the second time in franchise history. The last time was 1993 and the Kings ended up beating the Toronto Maple Leafs to go to the Stanley Cup Finals vs. the evil Montreal Canadiens. We won't talk about what happened then. We are going to talk about what happened today.

Jordan Nolan (Um, who? He's a King. 4th line. Came up from the minors in Feb, March?) scored a goal and got in a fight.

Then the Blues scored a goal.

Then Dustin Brown closed the first period with a beautiful goal, top shelf over the left shoulder of Blues' goalie Ell-i-ott!

That was the end of scoring until the final minutes. Jonathan Quick was his normal amazingly awesome brickwall, stopping some crazy shots.

With two minutes left, we, the long-suffering community known as LA Kings fans, stood and waved our white rally towels and got loud.... really loud.

"@JonathanQuick32:  Never heard a rink as loud as the StaplesCenter for the final 2mins! Thank you LA King fans! #goosebumps"

Then, St. Louis pulled Ell-i-ott! The open net beckoned. Anze Kopitar got the puck just outside the Kings' blue line. Brown was booking it up the other side of the ice. Kopitar passed the puck to him, and Brownie buried it in the back of the empty net, cementing the 3-1 victory. Staples Center went NUTS!

Listen....



"After Brown's empty-net goal, that might have been the loudest I've personally ever heard Staples. That includes three NBA Finals." -- Rich Hammond, LA Kings Insider Blogger/former Daily News sports guy

KINGS WIN... historically.

• First time the LA Kings have ever swept a playoff series.
• LA Kings are the first No. 8 seed in NHL history to eliminate both a No. 1 and No. 2 seed.
• LA Kings are only the third No. 8 seed to have ever advanced past the second round (Edmonton in 2006 and Montreal in 2010)

Then, as fans in Staples Center continued to go NUTS, the two teams met at center ice for the thing that makes hockey the classiest sport around, the handshake line. They'll battle and fight and swear and talk crap about each others' sisters for two weeks, then, when it's all over, they shake hands like gentlemen, wishing the victors well in the next round.

Haven't seen this since it was called the Campbell Conference Finals. Here's hoping.... GO KINGS GO! (Knock on wood. No jinxes. No whammies!)