Brown, Campbell Lead Kings to Much Needed Win

I have some breaking news to share: the Kings scored the first goal of the game. In 13 games, the Kings have scored first only 3 times; against Detroit, Anze Kopitar pulled it off in the second period, in Winnipeg Ilya Kovalchuk in the first (though they ended up losing 2-1), then in Montreal the Kings managed a 3-0 shutout. Those three games were games 2, 3, and 4 of the season. And, for the first time in 24 periods, they didn’t give up a goal. Shall we just celebrate this fact rather than dissect how awful that statistic actually is? I thought about it hard and chose to scream into the void, regroup, and focus on the positive.

So how did we get there? Initially with a penalty on Jeff Carter, who actually committed the infraction about 15 seconds in but wasn’t called until they touched up 48 seconds in. A collective sigh/groan arose – it certainly couldn’t be a good sign that the Kings sucked that early in. But a decent penalty kill didn’t get the Blue Jackets anywhere, so why not try a power play? 5:45 in they did, but in the same way that I can try to be polite to Vegas fans, the results were disappointing. Once again, and I, sounding like a broken record here, the Kings power play needs serious help. So when the ref put his arm up a few minutes later, I didn’t have much hope. Turns out Alex Iafallo didn’t need a penalty, just the hope of one, to score. Iafallo, a hero to Kings fans everywhere for the moment, found a spot through traffic that appeared to just slip by into the net, likely thanks to a Carter screen. The first goal! A lead! A lead not immediately followed by an equalizing goal! A lead almost followed up by another King’s goal – this game had the potential not to suck. Phaneuf and Foligno spiced things up with a fist fight by Jack Campbell and served the remainder of the period in the box, to be joined by Muzzin for 1:34 as the period ended, with a fairly weak call that carried over into the second.

The Kings easily finished the Muzzin penalty, then at the 46-second mark went on the power play. The weakest part of the Kings game did not improve, alas, however it was nice to see Tanner Pearson back up Campbell when Bjorkstrand got a little too close for comfort. Compared to last game, they were just more comfortable in front of Campbell, who was just as solid as ever. For the most part; there were a few scrambling moments where he either didn’t see the puck or just plain didn’t have it, but he always recovered quickly and had a solid defense to help out. A few wide open moments by Bobvrosky could have spelled disaster had the Kings been in typical form; thankfully they were stepping up. Muzzin not as much – he was back in the box 7:54 in, but 49 seconds later Thompson drew a penalty so we had some 4-on-4 and me wishing for an insurance goal. Apparently, my wish is their command, thanks to Carter and a nice Dustin Brown screen. (Very nice to see Carter still in fine form and Brown parking himself at the net paid off in more ways than one.) By the end of the period, it actually wasn’t surprising to see the Kings remain up 2-0.

Of course, 29 seconds into the third 1 got by Campbell, and that was all it took to shake the fans. But not the Kings. They stayed solid throughout another not great power play, and when Kovalchuk was called for goalie interference 7:31 in on a call so weak it should have been hospitalized, Kopitar and Brown took it to heart. So much so that they combined for two – count them two! – shorthanded goals! The first came on a combined rush neither gave up on despite heavy pressure, and Bobvrosky didn’t stand a chance against Kopitar’s stick handling. Less than a minute later Brown was awarded a penalty shot after he standalone breakaway was felled in his attempt to shoot. It went in his favor, with some more fancy stick handling and there was the game. Even a penalty with 3:52 remaining couldn’t slow down the Kings momentum, who finally had a game worthy of watching all the way through. Please, please let this be the beginning of the uptick!