Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team drew first blood in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final against New York Rangers, coming from behind to win 3-2 on Wednesday night.

Justin Williams was the hero for the Kings, latching onto a mistake from Dan Girardi to fire the puck home four-and-a-half minutes into added time.

The game looked up early on when goals from Benoit Pouliot and Carl Hagelin gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead, but Kyle Clifford pulled one back near the end of the first period, and then in the seventh minute of the second stanza, the Californian fans in the Staples Centre went wild as Drew Doughty levelled the game.

It remained a tense third period with neither side able to pinch the decider, until Williams made himself a hero.

Williams was pretty modest about his effort in after-match press conference:

“We screwed up a three-on-two royally and fortunately for us one of their D (defense) men has fallen and we were able to turn a puck over. I was sitting in front of the net with the puck and I was able to make a shot.

“It’s a great result for us but we have a lot of things to clean up. We were able to get it done and that’s the most important thing.

“It was not the start we wanted but we certainly got the result we wanted.”

The teams meet again on Saturday night, in game two of the best-of-seven series. Dafabet go 1.30 Los Angeles Kings and 3.27 New York Rangers. The match starts at 11pm UK time.