Kings Give St. Louis The Blues

 Finally, for the first time in many games, the Kings came out strong. They had the first 5 shots on goal and all pressure – the one time the puck came into the Kings zone in the first five minutes the Blues took a double minor instead, allowing some of the best puck movement I’ve seen all season for the a Kings on the delay. 46 seconds into the first minor, Jake Muzzin scored! His shot from the slot sailed by Blues netminder Jake Allen‘s left shoulder for the Kings first period goal in 7 games. (Credit Dustin Brown with a nice screen.) Alas the next two minutes with the man advantage wasn’t anywhere near as successful, though Nic Dowd was all over the ice all period, making smart and aggressive plays. It wouldn’t be a Kings game if they didn’t then take a few penalties, the first on Nick Shore at 7:24 and then Drew Doughty at 9:49. Doughty was having an otherwise dominant evening; he is right to be proud of his defensive play lately. (“I think I’ve been  playing really good defensively”, Doughty said, “especially the last month and a half. Ever since we kind of started the trip in Buffalo with a tough game I’ve felt like my game’s been at probably the highest it’s ever been. Maybe not putting up the points I’d like to put up, but defensively I feel great.”) Thankfully the Kings penalty kill was in top form; on the Doughty penalty the Blues didn’t even get a shot off. It did arrest the Kings momentum for the middle of the frame, giving the Blues a chance at the net, but nothing Peter Budaj couldn’t handle. In a perfect bookend for the period, Trevor Lewis provided the Kings second goal with 1:48 remaining. I mean when Anze Kopitar is hanging out at the net and Lewis is the one with puck on the breakaway I’d probably pay more attention to Kopitar myself, but it was the exact same shot Muzzin took only slower, and it got by Allen easily. The Kings were doubling the Blues shot total 6-12 and leading 2-0.

The second period began with just as much as a bang as the first. 4:43 into it Muzzin got his second goal of the evening, putting him on deck for a hat trick. He would be the first of two players to be on deck. The goal came from Marian Gaborik and Kopitar, and was just like his first. That was the last we’d see of Allen too, as he was pulled in favor of his backup Carter Hutton. He lasted less than a minute before allowing a goal, this time getting Pearson on deck for a hat trick. Brown led the rush up center ice and got it to Pearson who slapped it knuckleball style past his far side. 4-0 sounded so good, and Budaj would have preferred it stay that way considering how garbage the goal was that ended up breaking his shutout. The play was reviewed for being kicked in (the call on the ice stood) and coaches challenge for goaltender interference, but that was also overruled. It looked like Paul Stasny’s goal would stand. It was not the Kings finest moment but they didn’t let it get to them. In fact the Blues only managed 2 shots on goal for the entire second period. The Kings had a power play beginning with a play from Devin Setoguchi where he lost his stick, so he kicked the puck out of the zone and ended up galling flat on his behind. The power play Kopitar then drew was less than stellar, but kept the Kings momentum going. With the seconds ticking down the Blues had given up before the period had quite closed, and Pearson capitalized for his second of the evening. Carter, from behind the play passed up to Pearson who’d camped out by the net and snuck it by Hutton with 12 seconds remaining.

Kyle Clifford and Ryan Reaves spent the first 10 minutes of the third in the box with a misconduct penalty each, an infraction they earned at the end of the second. Muzzin joined Clifford in the box 1:36 in, giving the Blues the chance to literally double their shot total in the first 5 minutes, going from 8 in 40 minutes to 16 in 45. But as the third continued it was clear while the Blues were pushing back, the weren’t going to get far with it. With 6:00 remaining the Kings had a power play who’s sole purpose seemed to be getting the puck to Muzzin and/or Pearson to get them their hat trick. Muzzin staked out his place on the point and Pearson by the net, but the Blues weren’t having it. With 6 seconds remaining the Blues took another penalty, but with only 6 seconds of 5-on-3 the Kings couldn’t do much with it, and certainly did nothing on the next penalty. It did serve to keep the Blues with only 1 goal, however, giving the Kings a much-needed and convincing win.

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