It started to cost the Kings, though, and the Sharks took advantage in the second period.
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Game 2 is on Saturday at Staples Center.
The time has finally come. San Jose went 28-10-3 on the road during the regular season in 2015-16, recording the second-most victories away from home in league history, and carried over that success to Game 1 as it skated to a 4-3 victory.
On the other end, Martin Jones made several big stops on a penalty kill late in the period to keep the Kings off the scoreboard heading into the third. However, reminiscent of the season opener, it wouldn’t be long before the Shark’s answering call. That was on a 5-on-3 in which Milan Lucic and Tyler Toffoli took minor penalties on the same play. “He scores a lot of key goals … he’s been clutch like that for us all season”.
“We’re going to get a big response from L.A. They’re going to be better”, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said.
If anyone wanted to watch a Northern California pro team play, it was going to be the Sharks. 40 seconds after Burnzie’s finish Jeff Carter got one back for the Kings, on the powerplay.Pavelski cleanly won the faceoff from Anze Kopitar (who won more this season than all but six NHLers) and went behind the net, muscling past one of the best defensive centers in the game.Martinez played 11:43, and wasn’t available in the third period.Kings coach Darryl Sutter did not comment when asked about Martinez. The Slovak scorer had a phenomenal postseason in 2014, contributing 14 goals on the way to his first Stanley Cup title. “Everyone can be better so it’s just a matter of – again, this is the time of year where you can’t dwell on it”.
The Kings’ third goal would come from an unlikely source – Trevor Lewis.
“Every single play, every single battle, every moment of the series is going to be tough”, Jones said. He scored series-winning goals in overtime of Game7 of the Western Conference finals against the Chicago Blackhawks and in Game5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers in 2014. This Kings team is rich with a championship pedigree up-and-down that entire freaking lineup. “We’ve got to go out there with determination and start playing our game”.
The Sharks were hoping that line can create some mismatches early in the series with its speed. San Jose is 2-0 in this scenario, having won the first two games on the road during eventual series wins over Calgary in 1995 and Vancouver in 2013. As far as who was guilty on the Kings?
“Our mind-set is to win the next game and cut [the deficit] in half”. Lecavalier often looks great once established in the zone, but he was never able to do that in this game. “I think without even looking that would be the case”.
Of course, this is a major game for the Kings. Nearly all of the final 1:30 of the game was the Kings pouring chances on and around the net while their own was empty. Very un-Kings-like.
“We’ve got a few guys in the most-valuable-player category for us, but he’d be right at the top of the list”.
The Sharks are thrilled to have a 2-0 lead in their playoff series – but they are even happier about how they’ve put their rivals in an early hole. Luke Schenn played 17:07. The Kings’ ability to break out was one of their worst areas, and McBain would help that. “Right now we’re not doing a good enough job of it. We need to figure it out quick if we want to turn things around”. The other option the Kings should seriously be considering (and hopefully can), is the return of Marian Gaborik. That’s one thing that is very true.
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Kings frustrations continued to mound as they just couldn’t get past ex-LA goaltender, Martin Jones.
