Los Angeles Kings edge past San Jose Sharks 3-2
Jarret Stoll lit the lamp in the fourth round of the shootout to give the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night.
Ryan Smyth and Alexei Ponikarovsky each netted a goal for Los Angeles, who have won their third consecutive game. Jonathan Quick turned aside 22 shots for the winners, including eight in the final stanza and overtime combined.
Los Angeles Coach Terry Murray praised his team’s performance by saying, "That's a team effort. You've got to have the right defence out there to match up with them, we believe, on the back end more than the line match-up, and your goaltender has to be very
big. I mean, (Jonathan) Quick was outstanding. That's three games in a row for him now that he's been great."
Ryane Clowe and Devin Setoguchi both found the net for San Jose, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Antti Niemi surrendered two goals on 20 shots in the losing effort.
After a goalless opening period, Smyth finally put Los Angeles on the scoreboard for a 1-0 lead just after the halfway mark of the middle stanza. After slipping through Sharks’ defence during a rush, Smyth ripped a shot through traffic created by Stoll and Dan
Boyle to score.
Clowe then pulled the Sharks even at 1-1 less than two minutes later, as he fired a brisk shot past Quick’s glove hand on an odd-man rush. Soon after, Setoguchi gave San Jose a one-goal lead at 2-1 when Quick’s defence couldn’t control the young forward,
who let go a backhander that trickled in from underneath Quick’s legs.
"Both teams played really well, but it's bittersweet to end it like that," said Setoguchi. "We got caught out there on a couple of long shifts, and that cost us."
However, Ponikarovsky knotted the game at 2-2 early in the final period. The play was set up by defenseman Rob Scuderi, who made a slick play to keep the puck in the zone and passed it to Ponikarovsky, who buried a backhander into the net.
San Jose missed a chance to score on a four-minute power-play, as the Kings flawlessly killed it in the waning minutes. All-Star Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson both hit the post on the Kings’ first two attempts in the shootout. Quick then blocked Patrick
Marleau’s shot on San Jose’s last attempt.
After the first six shooters were all unable to score, Stoll banged a shot over the glove of San Jose netminder to break the deadlock and seal the win at 3-2.
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