Stanley Cup Finals 2012: Kings Are in Trouble If They Don't End Series in Game 6

After losing Game 4 and Game 5 in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals, the Los Angeles Kings are still up 3-2, but they need to end the New Jersey Devils' season in Game 6.

If they can't finish off the Devils, Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET, we're going to see Peter DeBoer's squad become the first team to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

After failing to score a clean goal in the first three games of the series, the Devils have gotten it together. They're still down 3-2, but they're gaining confidence, and that's the last thing that Los Angeles wants to see.

Adam Henrique, a rookie who everybody pegged to have a huge impact on this Devils' playoff run, teamed up with Patrick Elias and Ilya Kovalchuk to score three third-period goals in Game 4. Whenever a team comes back in a playoff series, there's always that one specific moment that you can look back on and point to as the time when the momentum swung the other way.

That third period will prove to be the time if the Devils can come back.

Game 5 wasn't quite the same song and dance, but the Devils were able to do something that they had emphasized all series long: They were able to get the first goal. It wasn't just a goal, it was a power-play goal, their first of the series. And it wasn't just their first power-play goal of the series, it was the first goal they got from Zach Parise.

Do you see how things are starting to fall in place for the Devils? Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise removed the goose eggs from next to their names. They were supposed to be the key to the series for the Devils, and now that they've found their second wind, New Jersey has a chance.

They don't have a huge chance. There are no foregone conclusions, but the Devils are in a much better position than they were two games ago.

They've realized that Jonathan Quick isn't a brick wall, and that they can get the puck by him. They have Martin Brodeur—one of the best goalies of all-time—between the pipes. He won't be the one to let them down.

The Devils know they have the ability to beat the Kings. They know they have the talent to be called the best team in the NHL for the 2011-2012 season. If the Kings don't silence their uprising on Monday, they're going to lose control of the series—if they haven't already.

Whichever team wins Game 6 typically wins the series, so if the Kings aren't able to squash the Devils' comeback, we will see a collapse of epic proportions in Game 7 at the Prudential Center in New Jersey.