Tanner Pearson scored 3:47 into overtime as the Kings climbed right back into the Western Conference first-round series with a 2-1 win over the Sharks in Game 3.
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“That last one, especially, we felt like we were going to get it”, said Sharks centerman Joe Thornton, who scored his team’s only goal of the night just 30 seconds after the opening faceoff.
If they can turn the special teams battle in their favor beginning in Game 4, San Jose should be just fine when all is said and done. Long gone are days when power plays score goals a third of the time they’re on the ice and it’s time to adjust our expectations accordingly. The Kings managed just 13 shots on goal during the entire game at 5v5, compared to the Sharks’ 25.
“We’re comfortable with our game”, head coach Pete DeBoer said. After a Game 2 loss highlighted by coaches’ challenges and finding itself in the hole early on Sunday, St. Louis rallied back to a 3-2 win.
What we CAN however derive from the goaltending numbers so far is that Martin Jones has been very good, however not tested. “It’s the same ice for both teams”. “They’re a team that likes to crash the net and take pucks to the net, and we’ve done a really good job”.
A great article by Arik Parnass looks at a better way to evaluate power play success. As we theorized at the onset, this series may be won by the Lecavaliers, Browns, Spalings, and Nietos of this series. “If you look this season as a singular event, they’ve had the upper hand on us – and this is just pushing back on the notion that they’re going to have an easy time”. In Game 2 they were held without a goal until late in the third period. The San Jose Sharks are averaging 2.9 goals per game and are scoring on 22.5 percent of their power plays. With the Kings down 2-0 in their series, they’ll have to hope Gaborik’s capable of playing a meaningful role on Monday. “Now we have to go out and win the next one”.
Dustin Brown has been among the more physical players in the series, including in Game 3 when he plowed over Donskoi to help generate Pearson’s score. The Kings generated only seven ss on Jones’ net well past the midway point of Game 2. The fact the Kings dropped the first two contests at home – both one-goal decisions – should come as no surprise as the Sharks recorded a franchise-record 28 victories on the road during the regular season for the second-most in National Hockey League history.
San Jose got another monster offensive game from Pavelski, their captain and a 38-goal scorer. The next two periods went scoreless, and the game went into overtime.
For a hockey franchise that has seen sellout crowds more often than not since its first season in San Jose, the sight was slightly jarring.
Only five of the 10 goals scored so far have been at even strength, so they re scoring on a handful of their (chances) and we ve scored on one of ours. “I thought we could have won the game tonight, too, we just have got to keep rolling out the same type of game”. This was also a time when the Kings’ dominance at overtime in the regular season didn’t matter, as the game would be played at the same 5v5 they had struggled with all night. Quick also stopped a Logan Couture blast and Donskoi’s follow attempt inside the final two minutes of the second period. “We’ve got to have to have another story line here, don’t we?” “We found a way”, Brown told reporters. “We executed on what we wanted to do, it got us to overtime and we capitalized”.
Continuing the talk about Kopitar, the Kings’ top player played like it in Game 3.
If that sentiment sounds familiar, you might be thinking of Doughty’s remarks in 2014 after the Sharks blew their 3-0 series lead to the Kings and lost in seven games.
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The Kings then were forced to kill a penalty before taking over the play for much of the first period.
