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Sharks pound Kings for 2-0
series lead
Balanced scoring results in another
offensive outburst
The San Jose Sharks have been guilty of laying down
their guard after big performances this season, so all eyes were on San Jose to
what they would do on Sunday after walloping the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of
their Western Conference Quarter Finals match-up. San Jose responded by
literally one-upping their 6 goal outburst in Game 1, by putting 7 pucks past
Jonathan Quick in a second consecutive white-washing of the Kings. 7 different
Sharks scored en route to a 7-2 victory and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
* San Jose has scored 13 goals in two games against the Kings, with 12
of them coming off of Quick. In a peculiar move by Kings head coach Daryl
Sutter, Quick was left to flail in the wind as the Sharks scored at will after
the Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
* The Kings grabbed their lead on
a pair of opportunistic goals after the Sharks failed to capitalize on a series
of chances early in the game. San Jose outplayed Los Angeles over the first
half of the opening period, but it was the Kings who potted goals. Jake Muzzin
added his second tally in as many games just 1:51 into the game. Muzzin fired a
shot through traffic form the top of the right circle as Marion Gaborik sat
parked in front of Sharks goaltender Antii Niemi. Defenseman Jason Demers tried
to clear Gaborik out of the spot impeding Niemi, but in doing so may have
created more obstacles for his goaltender.
* San Jose had a series of
scoring chances midway through the period, but once again it was the Kings who
took advantage. Jeff Carter cycled a puck in the left corner, then threw the
puck to the front of the sharks goal. Marc-Edouard Vlasic had position on
Trevor Lewis, but didn't see Carter's shot. That left Lewis with an opportunity
to get his stick blade on Carter's pass, redirecting it past Niemi for his 2nd
goal of the series.
* That would be it for the Kings good fortune. San
Jose went on another tear, scoring times in the 2nd period and then added 4
more tallies in the 3rd period. San Jose also trailed the Kings 4-0 in Game 3
of the 2011 Western Conference Quarter finals. They stormed back from that
deficit to win 6-5 in overtime.
* Mike Brown kicked off the goal
parade with his 1st NHL playoff goal 4:25 into the middle period. The sharks
3rd line turned something into nothing by forcing a turnover with a pesky
forecheck. Raffi Torres and Andrew Desjardins chased a puck behind the Kings
goal, forcing Matt Greene to hurry a pass that he wound around the right corner
boards. Kyle Clifford couldn't handle the pass, kicking it back toward
Desjardins who fed Brown in the slot for the quick one-time chance that beat
Quick stick side.
* Desjardins and Torres teamed up less than 5
minutes later to tie the game. The two traded passes after Brown blocked a
Greene shot in the Sharks zone. After taking a feed from his linemate,
Desjardins skated into the Kings zone then left a drop pass for Torres. Greene
elected to lay a hit on Desjardins rather than focus on Torres, who uncorked a
shot from the high slot that once again beat Quick high to the stick side.
* Justin Braun scored what would amount to the game-winning goal with
5:15 remaining in the period on a blast from the right side. James Sheppard
ripped a shot from the left side that bounced off Quick and kicked out to the
right wing boards past the top of the circle. Tommy Wingels created a
distraction in front of Quick who was late to react to yet another goal that
got past him due to a slow blocker. Like Brown before him, the goal was Braun's
first NHL playoff goal.
* Los Angeles scored a flurry of goals in the
3rd period of Game 1, so the Sharks history to deal with. They took a page out
of the Kings playbook and decided to respond with a bushel of goals rather than
sit back and let the Kings back into the game.
* Patrick Marleau pushed the Sharks lead to 4-2 with a
goal 68 seconds into the final period. Matt Nieto carried the puck up the right
wing before putting on the breaks and hitting Marleau with a pass to the off
wing. The Sharks certainly noticed that pucks were getting past Quick's stick
hand, which was noticeable from Marleau's shot selection. The Sharks forward
elected to squeeze the puck between Quick and the left post, rather than try
for the bigger opening on the right side of the net. Even Quick appeared to
react to what he thought was going to be a shot to the right side, but Marleau
went left to score his 2nd of the playoffs.
* Joe Pavelski took
advantage of an inopportune line change by the Kings and a turnover at the
Sharks blueline. Dan Boyle chipped the puck off the right wing boards as
Pavelski and Sheppard did an about face and raced up ice toward Quick. The
Kings defense tried to change as the puck was headed toward the Sharks net,
then got caught on the turnover exposing the entire right wing. Pavelski
grabbed Boyle's lead pass then skated in on Quick and lifted a shot over his
left shoulder.
* The rout was on with 12 minutes to play as Marleau
and Logan Couture teamed up for a pretty goal that showed off the Sharks speed.
Marleau slipped past Slava Voynov along the left wing boards after a dump in
was lofted over the Kings defenseman. Robyn Regehr tried to help out by
collapsing on Marleau, but the Sharks forward slid a pass between Regehr's
skates to Couture in the slot. Voynov switched defensive assignments and got a
stick on Marleau's pass, but couldn't fully gain control of it. Couture
gathered it and lifted a puck to Quick's stick side for the 6-2 lead.
* Things started to turn ugly as the Kings began to accept their fate. Greene,
who was already a -4 for the game, took a double minor for roughing at 8:59 of
the period. Torres earned a single roughing minor infraction on the same play,
but Jarret Stoll was called for high sticking 30 seconds later to give the
Sharks a 5-on-3 advantage. Joe Thornton capitalized with a shot from the right
dot to cap the mauling.
* With the two wins at home, San Jose took
care of their home ice advantage, but now they turn their attention to Staples
Center, or what turned out to be their own personal house of horrors last
spring. The Sharks lost 4 times in Los Angeles last spring during the Sharks
Conference Semi-Final series with the Kings. Their hands will be full even
though they hold a 2-0 series advantage.
* As was to be expected, the
Kings started to take out their frustrations with questionable plays after the
Thornton's goal. Kyle Clifford tried to go after Brown, drawing a series of
scrums. Desjardins tried to engage Kings captain Dustin Brown, but he declined.
Desjardins may have been guilty of trying to exact some revenge on Brown, who
knocked Tomas Hertl out of the lineup with a knee-on-knee hit in December that
cost the Sharks rookie 45 games. Brown was guilty of cowering away from
Desjardins invitation, and openly jawed at the officials for not stepping in
between him and the Sharks forward sooner. The verbal outburst resulted in a
trip to the showers for Brown.
* Mike Richards continued the Kings
shenanigans by spearing Couture, which drew a double minor that simply made
things easier for the Sharks to run the clock down.
* For anyone who
doesn't believe that Torres has been a key factor in the Sharks playoff
success, consider that he has 3 goals in 7 playoff games with San Jose. He only
had 8 playoff goals in 56 games before joining the Sharks.
* San Jose
set a new playoff record for most goals at home with seven.
* The
Sharks broke their record for most consecutive goals for in a playoff game with
seven. Their previous record was five.
*The Sharks tied their record
for most goals for in a period with four.
* San Jose also tied their
record for widest margin of victory in a home playoff game with five.
* The Sharks set a new playoff record for most points in a playoff game with
19.
Game Quotables:
Head Coach Todd McLellan: "The
catalyst was the Desjardins line. They got us going and everybody followed. You
need that to have success. Success is only two games. We have got a lot left
but you need to have everybody stirring the drink if you will."
Todd
McLellan "They had us running around a little bit with some of the line
match-ups. They obviously scrambled it and I didn't like the way it was going
in our end, we needed something else, and I decided to make that change.
Whether it stays there or not, who knows."
Joe Thornton: "It's going
to take all 20 guys that suit up and we realized that and where we want to go
everybody is going to have to be a leader throughout the playoff."
Joe
Thornton: "Coming in we felt like we had some good scoring chances, we were
down 2-0 and we just thought 'Don't let them get another goal' if we keep them
at two we truly believed that we could get three to win the game."
Joe
Pavelski: "I think any third period you want to play good in your home building
and we didn't do that. Even with the score being 5-0 you got to put a better
effort than we did. You got to learn, you'd like to say we learned but if we
find ourselves in that opportunity again, we have to play the part."
Logan Couture: "Nobody panicked, the coaching staff, the players, everyone, we
knew that if we kept playing the way we were playing that we would score some
goals and we were able just score seven unanswered."
Andrew
Desjardins: "I think in the first there we were kind of laid back but the last
two periods we were more aggressive and I think that definitely helped get
under their skin and get in their face more."
Raffi Torres: "Last year
was tough. I felt like I was in pretty good shape and coming into a new team I
was excited to get playing but obviously we all know what happened but that's
all in the past and now I just look at the upcoming games and what I can do
contribute."
Mike Brown: "Every time we step on the ice that's our
role, to get the momentum and bring the physicality into the game so regardless
if we are up or down we are still going to play the same way and all three of
us know what we need to do and what kind of game we have to play and that's
what we were doing."
Head Coach Darryl Sutter: "I think probably the
Sheppard line and the third line dominated the second period. And we didn't
have an answer for that."
Darryl Sutter (on this year compared to last
year): "They finished higher in the standings I think by 10 points. So
obviously that gives them home ice, which is so important."
Dustin
Brown: "Don't know if it was one thing in particular. We gave up a lot of odd
man rushes again. In the first, we got up two nothing but they had lots of good
chances. We need all 20 guys to be on top of their game"
Dustin Brown:
"When their 4th line can have that big of an impact on the game, we have to
have a response. And we didn't have a response from anybody."
Robyn
Regehr: "If we're not playing the way that we're supposed to, getting the
coverage that we're supposed to, these things are going to happen. We really
firm that up in a hurry because this team is strong on the rush."
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Feeder Forums |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| SJ |
0 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
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| 1st period - 1, LA,
Muzzin 2 (Doughty, Kopitar), 1:51. 2, LA, Lewis 2 (Carter), 9:33. |
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| 2nd period - 3, SJ,
Brown 1 (Desjardins), 4:25. 4, Torres 2 (Desjradins), 9:04. 5, SJ, Braun 1
(Sheppard, Pavelski), 14:45. |
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| 3rd period - 6, SJ,
Marleau 2 (Nieto, Couture), 1:08. 7, SJ, Pavelski 1 (Boyle, Wingels), 4:07. 8,
SJ, Couture 1 (Marleau, Nieto), 8:08. 9, SJ, Thornton 2 (Pavelski, Boyle),
10:06, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Voynov (LA
(roughing), 16:01; Burns, SJ (roughing), 16:01. |
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| 2nd period - Stoll, LA
(holding), 5:05; Demers, SJ (charging), 10:03; Brown, LA (tripping),
18:05. |
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| 3rd period - Greene, L A
(roughing), 8:59; Greene, LA (roughing), 8:59; Torres, SJ (roughing), 8:59;
Stoll, LA (high sticking), 9:29; Clifford, LA (roughing), 14:25; Brown, LA (10
min misconduct), 14:25; Brown, SJ (roughing), 14:25; Desjardins, SJ (10 min
misconduct), 14:25; Brown, SJ (10 min misconduct), 14:25; Richards, LA
(spearing - double minor), 14:44. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| LA - Quick |
40 |
33 |
| SJ - Niemi |
26 |
24 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| LA |
10 |
7 |
9 |
26 |
| SJ |
15 |
12 |
13 |
40 |
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| Referees: Dwyer,
O'Halloran. Linesmen: Cormier, Miller. |
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