Anything the St. Louis Blues (21-9-2) can do, the Los Angeles Kings (16-11-6) can do better as L.A. came back to win 6-4 in their return home from a rough road trip. Just two days after the Blues clawed their way back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Los Angeles 5-2 in St. Louis, the Kings returned the favor with a 6-4 win after being down 3-0 late in the first period. But in terms most cardiac arrest moments, it was just your average L.A. Kings hockey game.
#ItWas3To0 pic.twitter.com/c3F2WGIFqp
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 19, 2014
Things started a little chippy for both teams. Kyle Clifford went to the box early with a penalty less than minute in when he was called for roughing. Then a fight broke out between Kevin Shattenkirk and Justin Williams (yes, Justin Williams) two minutes later. There were five more penalties called in the first period, which was entertaining, but it offered up a lot of scoring opportunities for both teams. Guess what? Los Angeles was on the wrong end of a lot of those calls.
St. Louis had scored the first three goals of the period, capitalizing on two of their four power play chances. David Backes started things off with a deflection off a Jay Bouwmeester shot. Not only was it a well-timed play for the Blues, but it was horribly-defended play by the Kings who were out of position. It was not just this play either, they were out of position a lot and hurt them early.
A minute after getting on the board, Dmitrij Jaskin lazered one by Jonathan Quick. After Drew Doughty was called for slashing with five minutes remaining in the period, Shattenkirk increased the Blues lead on the ensuing power play and like that they were up 3-0.
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To put it into perspective of how bad things were going, the Blues had scored the last eight goals on L.A., going back to the 5-2 loss in St. Louis on Tuesday. Oh yeah, it was harsh. But never fear Kings fans, Marian Gaborik was there! After Chris Butler was called for slashing, the Kings finally got a goal on the power play and it could not come at a better time. L.A. was in disarray the entire period but Gaborik’s goal had finally breathed some life into them.
The Kings started the second period in better form. After several relentless attempts on goal, the Kings leveraged their momentum when Gaborik connected with Anze Kopitar who caught the puck and put it past Martin Brodeur. Blues lead was now only 3-2.
The Kings did get some bad news in the injury department as Robyn Regehr had gone to the locker room in the second and were down a defenseman the remainder of the game. There was no word on how long he would be out but it was said that Regehr had an upper-body injury.
As for the team on the ice, they continued their assault as Gaborik added another goal with less than five minutes remaining in the middle frame as he tied the game at three in a diving, superman-esque shot. As relieving as it was, the Blues scored not 20 seconds later to go back up in the game, 4-3. Vladimir Tarasenko had back-handed a shot that floated past Quick. Stoppable, yes. Surprising, yes. …That is it. There really is no defense of that one.
Good news though, the Kings started the third period on fire. Twenty seconds in, Kopitar had taken the puck away from Backes who failed to get a pass inside from the left boards. Kopitar raced down the side with one man on him as Jeff Carter rocketed out of no where to position himself on Brodeur’s right. A patient Kopitar faked on an initial pass to get it to Carter on the second. Carter had Brodeur off his axis and shot the puck up high to get the game-tying goal.
The Kings were finally sustaining some good possessions which also paid off with another power play goal. Nine minutes in, of all the Kings to score, it was Jake Muzzin who had the sweet moves to increase the Kings lead. As he sold a slap shot, Bouwmeester laid his body out in front Muzzin. The Kings defenseman then skated to his left and shot from a very sharp angle to zip it past Brodeur for the game wining goal.
Things were really starting to bounce the Kings’ way… literally. Dwight King had shot a bouncing knuckle-puck from just past mid-ice that caught Brodeur off-guard. Actually, he caught everyone off guard as that is were the gam ended with the Kings winning 6-4.
Dwight King goes top shelf. 6-4 pic.twitter.com/6gsPhAtdK7
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 19, 2014
The Kings win in the best possible way after that gut-punch of a loss back in St. Louis. Los Angeles wins the season series 2-1 and now look forward to taking on division rival the Phoenix Coyotes in an afternoon game at Staples Center on Saturday.