The Los Angeles Kings completed their amazing comeback with
a decisive 5-1 win against the San Jose Sharks. I say amazing not because they
are only the fourth team in NHL history to successfully overcome a 3-0 series deficit,
but because all of their wins were by a margin of at least 3 goals. They truly
dominated the Sharks and did so while teetering on the edge of elimination in
each game. It takes an entire team rallying around each other to achieve what
the Kings did last night.
The first period was close, exciting hard hitting hockey.
The Kings has a slight edge in shots outshooting the Sharks 14-9, though they
did have a two minute power play.
Matt Irwin would get the Sharks got on the board just 28
second into the second period with his first playoff point of the season, and
first ever playoff goal. Clutch performer Drew Doughty would even things up
just 4:30 minutes later on the power play, with Anze Kopitar scoring the
eventual game winning goal with less than 1:30 left in the period. The Kings
may have finished the second period with the lead, but they did not make it
easy for themselves. They took 4 penalties, giving the Sharks eight full
minutes with the man advantage; the Sharks couldn’t capitalize and would finish
the night 0-6 on the power play.
The Kings continued their dominance in the third period with
Tyler Toffoli scoring his third goal of the series to put Los Angeles up by two
less than 5 minutes into the third. The Kings would add two empty net goals to
finish the game 5-1, taking the series 4-3.
I think it’s safe to say that, heading into this series,
most people were expecting a game 7, but I don’t think anyone thought San Jose would
dominate the way they in the first three games or that the Kings would have the
resurgence they did in the last 4. In my opinion, the game changer from game 1
on April 17 to game 7 yesterday was without a doubt Jonathan Quick.
Quick had a very rough start to the series allowing 12 goals
in 2 games; it doesn’t matter how many goals your team scores, you aren’t
likely to win if you are averaging 6 goals against per game. He started to turn
things around in game 3, keeping his team in the game despite allowing a couple
“soft” goals, but they just couldn’t pull out the win for him. Game 4, to me,
was the turning point. He probably got back some of his confidence with the
win, and the longer he played, the more he seemed comfortable in the net, the
more he seemed to play his game. Quick allowed 19 goals through the first 4
games of the series, but after getting his first win in game 4, he allowed only
2 goals in the final 3 games. I think it’s safe to say Quick is back and more
confident than ever.
The Sharks were pushing and were definitely getting their
chances, they didn’t just roll over these last few games, they just couldn’t solve
Quick. In fact the only goal that got by him in game 7, was on a perfect screen
by James Sheppard. If Quick can continue to play lights out for the rest of the playoffs, and can get the Kings have into the Stanley Cup Final again, you'd have to think he'd be a front runner for the Conn Smythe. This team seems to live and die by his play, and the way he's going, I wouldn't want to be the Anaheim Ducks right now.
The San Jose Sharks meanwhile have another long offseason to evaluate why they can't seem to win when it matters most, and what they can do to prevent another collapse next season.
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