Kings Close Out Red-Wings Series with Win

Can you hear the hallelujah chorus? That’s the song the Angels make when the Kings score the first goal. The City of Angels hasn’t had much cause to use it this season, but they could tonight. The Kings dominated the first half of the first period. (They also had several unsuccessful to play the puck down the left wing and so many in a row it was becoming tedious to watch, but we won’t talk about that.) Once again the Brown-Kopitar-Iafallo line showed chemistry and generated some Grade A chances, but it was Paul LaDue who drew into the lineup for the first time since February 13th who made his mark on the scoresheet. Some nice puck work from Kopitar and Iafallo got the puck to him at the circle and his blast rocketed past Coreau at 8:55. The Kings kept the good times Rollin for a few more minutes but around 11:35, when New Jersey got their first shot on goal, and soon after when Jake Muzzin took a puck to the hand and went down the tunnel, that the wheels to the first period started to fall off. The Kings didn’t register a shot after that, while the Devils peppered Jonathan Quick with seven in the last 9 or so minutes. He was squared for all of them, making lunging saves that occasionally defensemen had to block the wide rebound, but that’s Kings hockey. They managed to survive the one penalty Kill and period 1-0, but the concern was setting in.

Muzzin was back to begin the second, so things looked to bounce back. Well, bounce back is a strong term. Played evenly with their opponent. They had two power plays. I use that term loosely. They didn’t register a shot on either, so they didn’t do anything to get the Kings that extra goal that would have made us feel much more comfortable. Dion Phaneuf took offense to Tyler Bertuzzi slashing him and got called for roughing, so there was some 4-on-4 for two minutes. But after 20 rather uneventful minutes, LaDue took a high sticking penalty leaving the Kings shorthanded to begin the third. It only took 45 seconds for Nyquist to take advantage of a vulnerable Quick and a team around him that couldn’t clear. Oh, LaDue, you were in such good graces after scoring first, don’t erase it by being in the box when they tied it up! Oh dear. Never fear, Anze Kopitar to the rescue. Literally, as a Red Wings penalty ended he deflected a shot into the back of the net, so reminiscent of that goal that changed league rules about reviews scored on Quick a few years ago – you remember the one. It flew up and into the netting out of play, but then came back down behind his back and deflected in? Yet somehow that was a goal? Yeah I’m not still mad about that (I am still mad about that.) So in revenge – a dish clearly served cold – Kopitar did the legal version of that and the Kings had a 1 goal lead again. With 11:34 still remaining it wasn’t convincing at any rate, but Quick is Quick and was the Jedi we needed. He kept the Kings in the game so well that even with 2 minutes remaining and the puck solidly in the Kings zone, Detroit wasn’t comfortable pulling their goalie and came to regret that. Toffoli took advantage of a free puck, and unassisted slicked one by Coreau with 1:30 remaining. They asked for a review for offsides and was rewarded with an automatic penalty for being ruled wrong. So an empty net was obvious to round out the game, making it look much more convincing that it was. Almost every stat was exactly the same. However, there are some that the Kings excel at – they have the best 3rd period differential in the league at +34. Kopitar now has 51 assists, tying a career high. And still with 11 games to play. He has 22 multi-point games and is 1 goal shy of hitting that coveted 30. His point streak is now at 6 games, Drew Doughty’s at 4. He assisted in all 3 goals in the third period and is sitting at 42 points, 1 shy of his career high. Again, all with 11 games remaining. Quick is sitting on a 0.932 save percentage in the last 15 games, exactly the trajectory you’d want to see ramping up to the playoffs. The Kings will have to be better Saturday, but for today they were good enough for 2 points.