Kings Undefeated 50th Anniversary Jersey Triumphant Again

That was not the game I expected to watch this afternoon. Typically the Kings sleep through afternoon games, and after the performance the Kings gave last game, it could have gone wither way – shrug it off and come out strong against the Wild (who just had a 12 game winning streak and were yet to lose on the road on a Saturday), keeping that undefeated streak in the 50th anniversary jerseys alive – or remain asleep. What we got was both.

The Kings slept through most of the first period. At 3:12 a mishandled pass from Jake Muzzin to Tanner Pearson was intercepted by Mikko Koivu, notorious King killer. Coming into the game he had 31 points in 34 games against the Kings, and 5 goals, 2 assists in his last 5 matches with the club. He added another goal to that total (and another assist later in the game; both important goals for the Wild.) 4:15 later they scored again, off of a lost face-off in the offensive zone Sutter was none to pleased with. In fact he called a time out to settle the team down, and it seemed to work. The Wild didn’t score any more goals, at least. It took a few more minutes than that for the Kings to gain any kind of offense, and then it was from the Dwight King–Trevor Lewis–Jordan Nolan line. While they did their job quite adequately, Anze Kopitar continued to struggle. He took plenty of shots but the Kopitar of old would have gotten so much more of them on net or in the back of it.

The second period was where things picked up for the Kings. (I know, I was shocked too.) By 7:39 Jeff Carter had brought the Kings true hope by doing what he does best – scoring. Practically unassisted he flicked the puck top shelf over Darcy Keumper, bring life back into the crowd. Carter would end the night the game’s top star with a goal and 2 assists. The Kings, who are now 14-1-3 in games where he scores, and 8-2-3 when he has multiple points, could stand to clone him, or at least have others play up to his standard. Muzzin, who I didn’t want to choke quite so much this afternoon, got the assist on the scoresheet – he would also end the night with multiple points. Marian Gaborik ended up on the scoresheet at 11:33, though how much of the goal could be credited to him is debatable. Carter and Drew Doughty created a scramble at the net that technically deflected of Wild defenseman Ryan Suter’s head into the goal, but since he couldn’t be credited it went to Gaborik, only his 2nd goal of the season. A delayed penalty on the Wild later in the period saw some good chances from Nic Dowd (and truthfully Kopi, though the shot could have bene much better) before the penalty officially began, though it didn’t lead anywhere. Derek Forbert impressed as the cleared puck ended up by the player exiting the box, making a nice block on his otherwise unimpeded shot, showing not his first and certainly not his last bit of hockey sense this game.

7 seconds into the third period the Kings found themselves once again on the power play, this time making better use of it by taking the lead for the first time in the game. Muzzin’s second point of the game was a thing of beauty, assists going of course to Carter and Doughty, the third Kings player to get a multi-point game. (Not complaining about how great Carter and Doughty were, but the Kings really need other people to step up on the scoresheet. I think it’s only a matter of time before Dowd is one of them. And while Forbert probably won’t be making the scoresheet any time soon, he did impress and kept others off of it.) Of course the Kings weren’t comfortable with the lead and did their best to spend the next 19 minutes to give it back to the Wild. They took 3 penalties – Dowd, Shore and Doughty – two guesses which player being in the box led to the Wild’s tying goal. Of course one can’t blame that entirely on Doughty; the game had 2:17 remaining when the Wild pulled their goalie and around that time was when Doughty was called, the delay giving the Kings quite a bit of 2-men down time. It wasn’t surprising to see the Wild convert and force overtime. Considering the Kings record in overtime, however (8-1 in 3-on-3 this season, 20-4 overall), Pearson with the game winner wasn’t surprising. The win brought them up to the first wild card spot in the standings.

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