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LA starts the week right with comeback victory |
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The LA Kings start their week off right with a huge two points over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.
With the game tied at two with late in the third period, Joel Eriksson Ek scored to put the Wild ahead with less than three minutes on the clock. In the final seconds and goalie Jonathan Quick on the bench for the extra, Dustin Brown tipped in Drew Doughty’s point shot to tie the game.
After a back and forth five minute overtime session, Jeff Carter eventually ended it with a beautiful wrist shot for this second goal of the game.
“We had to come back, that’s a huge two points for us against a team we’re fighting with for position in the conference,” said John Stevens during the post-game scrum. “We wanted to play the full 60 minutes and make sure that they took advantage of the time left on the clock.”
“Full credit to the leaders on the hockey team for not hanging their heads in that situation.”
Speaking of being in that situation, Dustin Brown has been scoring those late big goals all season. Of Brown’s 22 goals this season, 17 of them were scored in the third period or overtime and six of them were either tying of game winning goals. Of the 13 third period goals, 11 of those were scored in the last five minutes of the final frame.
“On that one I tried to really fake like I was passing the puck and that opened up the lane for a few seconds,” said Doughty about his assist on Brown’s tying goal. “That’ how I found the lane and Brownie just made a great play up in front and Brownie’s been great in front all year.”
As much as the victory is great for LA, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the team in this game. The Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Tanner Pearson scored late in the first period and Carter scored his first goal six minutes into the second period.
After that, it just seemed like the Kings were hanging on for dear life to hold on to that lead. Unfortunately for them, Zach Parise scored halfway through the second to cut the lead in half and then Eric Staal continued his torrid goal scoring pace, scoring his 39th to tie the game late in the period.
It stayed tied until late into the third period when Eriksson Ek scored to put the Wild in front. It was at this point the Kings woke up again and took control of their own destiny.
Despite giving up the 2-0 lead, you have to give Quick credit for keeping his team in the game. He stopped 24 of 27 shots in the win but he was tested all game.
“Jonny, he’s been a backbone here for a long time,” said Stevens about his netminder. “He’s a guy we count on to make key saves at key times and just settle things down back there.”
“He just has a calm in the net that I think resonates with our team, but he’s made a career out of making key saves at key times in critical moments.”
With the win, the Kings move into a tie with the Anaheim Ducks for the third spot in the Pacific Division with LA holding the tie breaker for more non-shootout victories. As well in the Wild Card race (should it come to that), the Kings are tied with both the Colorado Avalanche and Ducks with 86 points, however they are tied with the Avs in non-shootout victories.
The next tie break is head-to-head matchups where the Kings currently lead the season series 1-0, however they play Colorado twice within the next three weeks which could be the most important games of the season.
Coming up next, the Kings will complete the second half of their back-to-back as they travel to Winnipeg to take on the surprising Jets team. The Jets have won six of their last nine games and are trying to stave off the Wild for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Patrik Laine has been on fire lately where he has scored 12 goals in his last 15 games and is currently tied with Alex Ovechkin for the league lead with 43.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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