Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings drop the gloves in spirited tilt between conference power houses
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings have been two of the most offensively explosive teams to start the year in the NHL, and when the two teams went head-to-head on Thursday, 4 November, many
would have predicted a wide open high-scoring affair. They got quite the opposite as the two teams battled each other hard in a gritty 1-0 win for the Kings.
How it happened
This was a meeting of the number one (Steven Stamkos) and number two (Drew Doughty) picks from the 2008 draft. Although Doughty, who recently returned to the lineup after being out with a concussion, got
the assignment to shut down Stamkos, it was the Lightning's Steve Downie that he targeted when he took a charging penalty in the third period not long after Justin Williams had put the Kings up 1-0 with his sixth of the season.
Downie took exception to the illegal hit and took a run at Doughty when the opportunity arose some seven minutes later. Although Downie missed on the hit attempt it drew a reaction from the Kings and large
scrum ensued eventually leading to fighting majors and a misconduct penalty for Downie.
Despite a spirited third period, Williams' goal was enough for the Kings to prevail.
What they're saying
For two teams who play in opposite conferences it was strange to see each playing with the type of passion that they did. "It was pretty intense for a game against a team you only see once a year," Stamkos,
who leads the NHL in scoring, told reporters after the game.
The Lightning's productivity in front of the opposition's goal has dropped since they'd started their Western Conference road swing, and they were likely hampered by the fact that they were playing two
games on consecutive nights.
"When you play a team like Tampa, with all that firepower, you’ve got to focus on a really good checking game, and I thought we did a pretty good job tonight," Kings forward Anze Kopitar said after the
game. "They didn’t get a whole lot of high-quality scoring chances, so that’s definitely satisfying. Maybe next time we should score a few more goals, so it’s not as close, but two points is two points, and we’ll take it."
The Lightning finish their road swing against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, 6 November.
With the win, Los Angeles remain atop the Western Conference and improve their record to 9-3. They get set to host the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
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