San Jose Sharks hold Los Angeles Kings off 2-1 to Force Game 7 – NHL Playoffs Update
Los Angeles was ready to take it and advance to the Western Conference Finals after putting San Jose on the verge of elimination following Game 5.
The Sharks struck back and made their presence felt at the HP Pavilion in California, downing the Kings 2-1 to force a Game 7 competition between the state rivals.
Scoring first has been important throughout the series as whichever team was the one to do so, has ended up winning up until now. There may be many factors associated with that theory, the biggest being that it breaks the morale of the other team.
Los Angeles is currently defending their title of being the 2012 Stanley Cup champions, which they won for the first time in history, and San Jose knows that it will not be easy downing them in Game 7, especially since they will be playing on the Kings’
turf.
“It's followed a script,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “Both times, the teams trade wins back and forth. It's time for us to get there and change this story. Obviously, we're going to have to play much better than the last time we were in L.A. They earned
the right for home ice. It's our job to take it away from them.”
Joe Thronton grabbed the first of the night on a power play as LA lost Anze Kopitar for delaying the game with the puck over the glass minor penalty. T.J. Galiardi finished it off with his opening goal of the playoffs, 4:10 into the second while Dustin Brown
finally put Los Angeles on the scoreboard with his third.
San Jose continued to hold off Los Angeles in the third, which was a scoreless 20-minute period and Antti Niemi ended up being the star goalie of the night as be blocked 24 of 25 shots on his net.
“Every game has been close,” Kings defender, Rob Scuderi, said. “I'm sure it's not a shock it's come to a Game 7. I'm sure both teams didn't want it to go this far. Right now, it doesn't matter how we win, just that we win it.”
The Kings and Sharks will be going up against each other for the final time in the series on Tuesday in Los Angeles at 9 PM ET.
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