Anze Kopitar scored a goal on a breakaway with 11:47 left in overtime Wednesday night and the Kings beat the Devils 2-1 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. "From a series standpoint, it's huge to put them behind us, right off the get-go," Kings captain Dustin Brown said. "It makes it a little more difficult for them to get back into it if we play our game and do the right things."

Toronto's championship hockey drought could soon come to an end, thanks to the Marlies. The Marlies defeated the Barons 3-1 on Friday night to win their series in five games and advance to the Calder Cup final. The AHL affiliate of the Maple Leafs won the Western Conference title.

The Devils are going back to the Stanley Cup finals, thanks to a rookie, a 40-year-old goaltender and a coach who'd never been to the postseason in the NHL. Adam Henrique scored off a scramble in front at 1:03 into OT and the Devils defeated the Rangers 3-2 to advance to their first Cup finals since 2003. The Devils will face the Kings for the Cup in a series that will start on Wednesday here.

Brandon MacLean scored 3:33 into OT and the Florida Everblades won their first ECHL title, beating the Las Vegas Wranglers 3-2 on Wednesday night in Game 5 of the Kelly Cup finals. MacLean beat goalie Joe Fallon with a shot from the left circle in front of a crowd of 7,290 at Germain Arena.

The Devils turned a stellar first nine minutes and an opportunistic final five into a victory over the Rangers that moved New Jersey within one win of the Stanley Cup finals. Suddenly, No. 1 seed New York is on the brink of elimination. Ryan Carter snapped a tie with 4:24 left, and gave New Jersey a 5-3 victory over New York after they blew a three-goal lead in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday night.

Dustin Penner scored 17:42 into overtime and the Kings are headed to the Stanley Cup finals for the second time as a franchise after beating the Coyotes with a 4-3 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Tuesday night, according to an ESPN.com report.

The Eastern Conference finals between the rival Rangers and Devils finally got ugly on Monday night. Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur was sucker punched in the third period by former teammate Mike Rupp. Coaches Peter DeBoer of New Jersey and John Tortorella of New York screamed at each other after the incident. And the Rangers blew their cool, as the Devils rode two goals and an assist by Zach Parise to a 4-1 win that evened the series, 2-2. "Throughout a seven-game series," Parise said, "both teams are going to get frustrated with things."

Russia won the world championship Sunday by defeating Slovakia 6-2. Alexander Semin of the Capitals scored two goals and had an assist in the rout. Russia scored three times in the second period to take control. Alexander Perezhogin, Alexei Tereshenko, Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings and tournament MVP Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins scored the other goals, with Datsyuk and Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals assisting on two.

Shane Doan scored two goals, Mike Smith made 36 saves in his third playoff shutout, and the Coyotes avoided playoff elimination with a 2-0 victory over the Kings in Game 4 of the conference finals on Sunday, according to an ESPN.com report.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 36 shots, and Dan Girardi, Chris Kreider and Ryan Callahan scored third-period goals to lead the Rangers to a 3-0 win over the Devils in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday. The Rangers scored two goals only 1 minute, 57 seconds apart early in the third to help them take a 2-1 series lead.