Carter Kings Best Hope, Zatkoff Saves 1 point

By Emily Redenbach
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Updated: December 24, 2016

I love playing Dallas for the corny Lehtonen ‘Let One In’ jokes. In fact he let in two, well three depending on how you look at it. Jeff Zatkoff, in net for the Kings, faced the first few shots but a Stars penalty meant the Kings got the majority of play for the first five minutes. They didn’t need much of the power play to score, though more than they expected when Jeff Carter scored for the first time. Anze Kopitar, who’s play has been improving the last few games, bore down the right side, flicked a shot off, Carter centered the rebound and shot it straight past Lehtonen. However according to the referees Tanner Pearson was in the crease and the goal was waved off; Daryl Sutter didn’t challenge. No worries for Carter though, he’d score again 56 seconds into the penalty at 3:05. Pearson, making up for the first goal it seemed, made the initial shot to Lehtonen’s right and Carter easily buried the rebound to his left. Kings took the lead, but it counted this time. Drew Doughty made himself known with some impressive plays, seemingly everywhere on the ice at all times. Setoguchi was making his mark too, on a line with Pearson and Kopitar. Neither team could gain any ground for the rest of the period however, it ending with shots 10-11, Dallas slightly edging the Kings but neither team with scary shots for the goaltenders.

The Kings opened the second period by letting an outnumbered attack lead to a goal. It was actually gorgeous, the kind you wish your team was scoring not letting in. 43 seconds in Tyler Sequin blasted a rocket past Zatkoff that fired by his right shoulder beating him cleanly; Zatkoff didn’t have much of a chance to get over. Of course because is the LA Kings they follow-up with a penalty, though I’m not putting that on Nic Dowd, who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when a Star was tripped by his own player’s stick and the ref called Dowd for it. The Kings penalty kill remained perfect, same as the eight games before, though it did swing the momentum to the Stars who seemed to win keep the puck possession game easily, forcing the Kings to play defense with little offense. It took a good 8 minutes for the Kings to get some offense and when they did it was a lot. A scramble around the half way point created 5 or 6 chances in the space of 15 seconds but none of them went past the goal line. A Trevor Lewis drawn power play also couldn’t up the Kings score but it did keep the momentum by Lethonen and forced the Stars to expend a lot of energy to keep it that way. The last five minutes of the period was a battle of the goaltenders, with plenty of great chances end-to-end but Zatkoff and Lehtonen keeping their teams chances alive.

To continue the tradition the Kings once again found themselves on the wrong side of a goal when a defensive breakdown left Zatkoff making an incredible first save with his pad but then down on the ice for the top shelf shot that Martinez couldn’t completely block. Just as we were saying “Zatkoff deserves better” Jake Muzzin gives a terrible turnover behind the net and sure enough Zatkoff came up big again. It looked like with a penalty kill he’d be called on again quickly but 7 seconds into the penalty Doughty drew a penalty putting them in a 4-on-4 situation. They say it favors the team trailing, and it did. Most of the action was down by Lehtonen, but he made all the stops he needed to. It was time for a King to step up, so who else but Carter to tie the game? He found himself unattended in the neutral zone, started towards Lehtonen, slipped the puck back to Setoguchi who made the initial shot. Carter snapped in the rebound in true Carter fashion – the man has fast hands. In true Kings fashion another penalty followed, this time from Kopitar (I know, not a name you expect to hear in regards to a penalty). The Kings penalty kill remained perfect for the ninth game in a row and play continued in the same fashion as the second period – chances at either end and impressive goaltending.

You’d expect the Kings would win as soon as overtime is announced. The were 6-0 coming in this season on 3-on-3 and Dallas was 1-7. Dallas was so intimidated by the Kings they opened overtime with two defensemen on the ice. Alas things went sideways when Carter didn’t covert his chance and the puck went backwards to Zatkoff – Marian Gaborik didn’t prevent the pass to an open Lindell and he had a shot that hit the sweet spot, gliding by Zatkoff to end the game in the Stars favor.

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