Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks faceoff at the United Center in Chicago for Game 5 of their best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series. The game can be live streamed for free here. Los Angeles fans can hear all of the action on Fox Sports 570 while Chicago fans can do the same on WGN 720.
Los Angeles looks to win its fourth straight game in this series and close it out on the road to punch its ticket to its second Stanley Cup Final in three years while Chicago looks to win a game on home ice and bring the series back to California trailing 3-2.
The Blackhawks took Game 1 by a 3-1 score and the Kings took Games 2-4 while outscoring Chicago 15-7 in those games and winning both contests in Los Angeles.
Kings forward Anze Kopitar has been a force to be reckoned with this postseason.
"If [Kopitar] played in the Eastern Conference on a team that didn't stress defense as much as us, he could easily be a 100-point guy," Mike Richards told NHL.com. "He sacrifices that to be a two-way player and play on both sides of the puck."
Kopitar leads the NHL this postseason in points (22) and assists (17) and has added five goals while Marian Gaborik leads the NHL in goals (10) and has added six helpers to rank third on the team with 16 points. Jeff Carter is second on the team with 20 points while lighting the lamp eight times and adding 12 assists. Kopitar, Gaborik and Carter are the top three point-scorers in the playoffs.
The Blackhawks are hoping to play off their experience last year when they trailed the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals and came back to win three straight games and eventually hoist the Stanley Cup.
"I don't think we're trying to be so cool about it," defenseman Brent Seabrook told NHL.com. "We don't want to be down 3-1 in a series, ever, and we came back from it last year and it was great for our team once we started rolling. So we're going to be a desperate hockey team [Wednesday] night.
Seabrook (two goals, nine assists) is tied with Patrick Kane (six markers, five helpers) for second on the team with 11 points while captain Jonathan Toews (8-6--14) and Marian Hossa (2-11--14) are tied for the team lead in points. Toews is tied for second in the postseason in points while Hossa is tied for second in helpers.
In net, Chicago turns to Corey Crawford, who is 9-7 this postseason while ranking third in the league with a 2.34 goals-against average and fourth with a .918 save percentage. Los Angeles counters with Jonathan Quick, who is 11-7 with a 2.68 GAA and a .911 save percentage in these playoffs.
Los Angeles looks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals while Chicago tries to prolong the series when these teams take the ice for Western Conference Finals Game 5 at the United Center in Chicago as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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