Swiss-Cheesy Defense in OT Allow a Wild Finish
- Updated: February 28, 2017
Against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night, during the overtime, here is the pathway for the Minnesota Wild’s Mikael Granlund towards his goal: past 2016’s Norris Trophy winner, through 2016’s Selke Trophy winner, around a half-assing top Kings scorer, and then finally right by one of the best goalies in the world.
Yup. And it only took 12 seconds.
At :12 of the overtime period Granlund scored to give the Wild a 5-4 victory at the Xcel Energy Center. Such an ending would make you want to break your stick right in half. Selke winner Anze Kopitar made the motion to do so. Goalie Jonathan Quick, back only for his second start since missing 59 games, completely demolished his stick against the boards. And at presstime, it was not clear whether Norris winner Drew Doughty or Kings top scorer Jeff Carter broke their sticks or not.
Nevertheless, in the end, the Kings take one point and find itself 30-27-5 with 65 points, two points behind the St. Louis Blues in the playoff race. Before today’s overtime loss, the Kings were 10-1 in the OT frame this season and 22-4 since the implementation of the 3-on-3 format. After Saturday’s 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks, Quick noted that he would expect the team to win if it scored four goals. Anyone would.
But it wouldn’t happen. In an exciting, back and forth game – with shots basically even (30 for Kings, 35 for Wild) – Los Angeles took a one goal lead four times, only to have its opponents rebound to tie the game four times. The Wild’s only lead came when they won it.
With the most potent line coming from Marian Gaborik, Trevor Lewis and a surprisingly snappy Nick Shore, goals came from four different Kings:
- 8:15 of 1st: A quick-reaction shot from Shore on a pass from behind the net by Gaborik.
- 15:01 of 1st: A shot by Tanner Pearson that deflected off a stick and skate of an opponent as it fluttered into the net right by the chest of goalie Devan Dubnyk.
- 11:30 of 2nd: A long slap shot by Jake Muzzin that tipped in off of Martin Hanzal’s stick.
- 1:57 of 3rd: On a rush, Gaborik sending it into an open net after a cross-ice pass by Lewis through Shore.
Though giving up five goals, Quick made a number of solid and spectacular saves. However the Kings’ defense was soft at times, notably a minus-3 rating from Kopitar and at least one pass to the other team by defenseman Brayden McNabb.
The real killer came 12 seconds into the extra period where Granlund made his all-star moves past the swiss-cheesy “defense” of Kopitar-Doughty-Carter-Quick. That was depressing. And the LA equipment manager might even say costly.
Through the LA Kings Insider, head coach Darryl Sutter said, “Usually when you give up five, it’s pretty much a whitewash, so I give our team credit for getting a point.”
Sutter won’t say who will be in net for the next game – an away game against the Calgary Flames 6 p.m., Tuesday, February 28 – though the team has a pretty reliable “backup” goalie in Ben Bishop, recently acquired from Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sutter said, “I’m not getting into that. It’s not baseball. Hey, we’ve got to make sure that guy who’s played two in a row is getting his proper rest and taking care of his body.”
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