Goals Galore! Kings vs Pens

Oh right, he Kings played some hockey too. The Pittsburg Penguins were yet to play an afternoon game. In answer to the question ‘do Penguins sleep during the day?’ the answer seemed to be yes, at least for the first period. It took almost 10 minutes for them to even get a shot on goal (their first was logged 10:16 into the first.) Anze Kopitar seemed to be schooling every Penguin on the ice every time he went out – in one particularly beautiful sequence he skated into their zone, around two players, in between three and got a shot on goal. Even the Kngs fourth line was awake, all getting some solid offensive zone time against them, so of course the Penguins got the first power play of the day. Nick Shore for tripping. ‘Oh no, please don’t let it be one of *those* games,’ I prayed, as the Kings were outshooting them 8-1. Thankfully the Penguins only got off one shot on the power play, and the lazy Saturday afternoon continued. Former LA King Rob Scuderi found himself in the box with 1:07 to go in the period, which was basically a waste of a power play considering how much momentum you can get from a penalty split right down the middle.

And then. The second period. Damn. Six goals. Scudsy takes his second penalty of the game 2:22 in. 4 seconds later Doughty scored! Kings win the faceoff, Carter gets the puck to Muzzin. Muzzin cross-ice pass to Doughty who blasts it from the slot home. 1-0 Kings! Tyler Toffoli put in his bid for a goal a few minutes later and was absolutely robbed point-blank by Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. I mean wow. At this point the shots on goal were 15-3. Then 19-4. The Kings were killing it. Then Malkin gains the zone, schools the Kings a little and gets a pass to Crosby that almost tied the game. That would have been embarrassing! Instead the Kings decided to embarrass Fleury a little more. It was Marian Gaborik’s turn to school the Penguins, creating a nice forecheck to gain the Kings zone, he passed to Christian Erhoff (whom I’ve always been a fan of) who waited, waited, waited, picked his spot and bam! His first goal as a King. The crowd goes wild!

1 minute and 4 seconds later Staples Center practically exploded as the Kings found themselves up 3-0 basically half way through the second period! (10:57 to be exact.) Milan Lucic gets his first goal of the game beating Fleury 5-hole. Then the Kings did that very Kings thing that they do and 23 seconds later let Chris Kunitz score. It deflated the fans a little. Couldn’t have that, could we? Nope, says Jake Muzzin. Thanks to Kopitar tying up a couple of Penguin defensemen on the boards, Dustin Brown with a silky smooth pass to Muzzin who snipes it past Fleury and suddenly the game is 4-1 Kings, in the space of 2 minutes, 25 seconds. Phew! I guess Pittsburg felt left out of all the goal scoring because they got another one back with a couple of minutes to go in the second. Alas the Kings didn’t give us what we really wanted – a goal on Fleury during the McFlurry minute, but c’est la vie.

Exhausted yet? Nope, the third period brought more excitement! Mr. NHL Sidney Crosby, who picked up the primary assist on the first goal, thought the game wasn’t close enough, so he scored 2:39 into the second, bringing the Penguins to within 1, and fans heart rates to unsustainable levels. How did we go from 4-1 to 4-3 so quickly? Did Jonathan Quick really let in 3 goals in 12 shots? Did the Penguins really only have 12 shots on goal 2:39 into the third period? And did Kyle Clifford just high stick Phil Kessel 5:31` into the period? What are you doing to me Kings?!? Jeff Carter on the breakaway with Tyler Tofolli streaking down the ice to his left almost made it a 5-3 game in a shorthanded bid, so that penalty went well. Gaborik, not to be outdone, streaks down the ice himself, doesn’t really get off a shot on account of getting hooked from behind by Ben Lovejoy, Pearson picked up the almost rebound and makes his own bid Fleury robbed him of, and suddenly the game has a penalty shot too! Gaborik missed, leaving 8:27 minutes left in this one goal game.

With 2:20 left, the game still a one goal difference, the Penguins took their time out and pulled Fleury. It looked a little scary there for a bit, but in stunning Kings fashion Doughty being Doughty strips the Penguins of the puck, gets it to Lucic who pots his second of the game, empty net style. It was the first game since 2007 where 3 defensemen have scored in the same game. Four goals in one period is the most this season (can’t wait to see the game that stat gets beat!) Drew Doughty scored his fourth power-play goal of the season, which ties him for the team-lead and puts him third in the NHL among defensemen. He’s currently second in ice time. (Seriously how does he not have a Norris Trophy?) And we get to do it all again in less than 24 hours! Kings play Tampa Bay at home Sunday, 7pm.

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