The Los Angeles Kings proved two years ago that they can win a Stanley Cup Playoff series against the San Jose Sharks after losing the first three games.
Tanner Pearson made sure they won't have to try to do it again this year, scoring at 3:47 of overtime to give the Kings a 2-1 win against the Sharks at SAP Center on Monday in Game 3 of their Western Conference First Round series. The Kings cut the Sharks lead to 2-1 in the best-of-7 series. Game 4 is in San Jose on Wednesday.
Kings captain Dustin Brown started the game-winning play when he hit Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi in the neutral zone and knocked the puck loose to Pearson, who went on a 2-on-1 rush with Vincent Lecavalier. Pearson beat goalie Martin Jones through the five-hole from the left circle.
The Kings had lost all five overtime playoff games against the Sharks in their history before Monday. San Jose had won five straight and 10 of their past 11 overtime playoff games.
San Jose's Joe Thornton and Los Angeles' Anze Kopitar each scored in the first period. The Sharks went 0-for-5 on the power play and had no shots on goal on their final two man-advantage opportunities, each in the third period. Thornton scored 30 seconds into the game, making Milan Lucic pay for a giveaway in the Kings end. Tomas Hertl got to the puck and sent it to Thornton, who skated through the left circle and beat Quick with a wrist shot through traffic for his first goal of the series.
The Kings pulled even at 8:10 when Kopitar scored his first goal of the series, on the power play. Jones, who made 22 saves, stopped Muzzin's shot from the point, but the rebound went to Jeff Carter to the left of the crease. Carter sent a pass through the paint to Kopitar, who beat Jones from close range.
The Kings nearly scored again on the power play at 11:50. Carter had a shot before Kopitar had three straight shots, but Jones stopped all four. The Sharks outshot the Kings 11-6 in a scoreless second period. Late in the period, Sharks center Chris Tierney got open in the low slot and took a pass from Nick Spaling, but Quick darted out of the crease and made a glove save. Despite the loss, Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said he wasn't discouraged. Quick made 29 saves.
Sharks Bites
Joe Pavelski: "The effort was there, the crowd was great. We felt like we did a lot of good things again. They were definitely a better team than the first couple of games. It's nothing we can't play with and we don't feel like we can't get our game going. It's still a big challenge out there, and we're excited."Joe Thornton: "The last one especially, it felt like we were going to get it. The crowd was into it. They broke a stick. We had a lot of [shot attempts]. It felt like it was right there. Unfortunately, it just didn't happen. Just sling it to the net. That's all I was thinking."
Peter DeBoer: "We had a great start, took a couple penalties a long way from our zone. That changed the momentum for a little bit, but over the second and third, I thought we grabbed it back. Did a lot good stuff. Reality is they're a very good team. Multiple Stanley Cup winners over there. We knew this wasn't going to be a sweep. We're in a good spot. I thought we could have won the game tonight too. We just have got to keep rolling out the same type of game."
Kings Quotes
Drew Doughty: "It's huge [avoiding a 3-0 series hole]. That was exactly our approach before the game, to cut it in half and make it 2-1. We did an awesome job of that. Now we have to go out there and win the next one. You know they're thinking a little bit about it now, so we're right where we want to be.""[Quick] played really well tonight. I thought a lot of our top guys played awesome tonight. Our whole lineup, not just our top guys. Quick made some huge saves for us and he played really well."
Tanner Pearson: "Brown obviously made a nice hit at the blue line there. I think their D-man was trying to jump up in the play. Turned the puck over to me, and I was able to create a 2-on-1. I knew Vinny was with me. I just didn't want to risk forcing a pass across and turning it over. So I just wanted to get it on net."
"We knew they were going to come hard in this building. They always do. It's not the start that we wanted, obviously, but we trust each other in here that we were going to bounce back. It's a confident group when our backs are against the wall. We're still there and we've got to fight back to even up the series."
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