LOS ANGELES KINGS - 2012 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

Jeff Carter and Trevor Lewis scored two goals apiece and Jonathan Quick finished his Conn Smythe Trophy-winning performance with 17 saves as the Los Angeles Kings, after 45 years of being in the NHL, defeated the New Jersey Devils, 6-1 to become the Stanley Cup Champions for the first time ever. In addition, the Kings made history by becoming the first 8th-seeded playoff team to win the Stanley Cup.

Kings captain Dustin Brown had a goal and two assists for Los Angeles, which ended its spectacular 16-4 postseason run in front of a crowd including several dozen Kings fans, who have been at rinkside since the team's birth in the Second Six expansion in 1967.



Quick is the third American-born Conn Smythe winner, adding one more dominant game to a run in which he set NHL records for save percentage (.946) and goals-against average (1.41) among goalies who played at least 15 postseason games.

Under head coach Darryl Sutter, who joined the Kings midway through the season, L.A. steamrolled everyone in their path after barely making the playoffs, eliminating the top three seeds in the Western Conference in overwhelming fashion as they matched the second-fastest run to a title in modern NHL history.

With the victory, the collection of professional championships in the city of Los Angeles is now complete. The NFL's Raiders (when they were in L.A.) in 1984 became champions in Super Bowl XVIII after defeating the Washington Redskins. The Dodgers of Major League Baseball won the World Series title five times (1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988). Since moving to L.A., the Lakers of the NBA, with MVP performances by Magic Johnson & Kobe Bryant with Pat Riley & Phil Jackson as their head coach, won the second most in the league with 11 championships (1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010). And now in the year 2012, the NHL's L.A. Kings have added the biggest trophy of them all, the Stanley Cup!