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LA wins a dangerous game with the Capitals |
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The score may have said 5-2, but it was a lot closer than that.
Marian Gaborik scored two goals while Jonny Brodzinski and Jussi Jokinen scored two goals nine seconds apart to defeat the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Thursday night.
Evgeny Kuznetsov had both goals for the Caps in a game that was more free flowing offensively speaking that the Kings are used to.
“They come at you hard, Washington,” said coach John Stevens. “The one thing with Washington is they’re a really skilled team, but they’re big, and heavy team. They’re going to get their chances, they’re going to get some time in the zone. I thought it was a gutsy effort once we got the lead and didn’t give it up.”
However, once again the Kings did not start with the lead, a theme throughout the season. So far the Kings have given up the first goal of the game 17 times and have only come back to win eight of those games.
On Thursday, a neutral zone turn over by Tyler Toffoli allowed Dmitry Orlov and Kuznetsov to go on a two-on-one against Quick. Orlov sent a perfect cross ice pass to Kuznetsov and deked out Quick to get the early 1-0 lead.
Halfway through the first, Trevor Lewis sent a breakout pass to Gaboirk, who had to knock it down out of mid-air, sending him on a breakaway. Gaborik’s shot was initially stopped but the rebound appeared to go off of John Carlson and past Braden Holtby to tie the game.
Ordinarily the Kings are known as a defensive minded team. Currently they’ve allowed the second least amount of goals in the NHL and it has been a staple of this team for years. However, in the second period, the Kings played some firewagon hockey with the offensively minded Capitals.
Early in the period, Quick had to make an outstanding save on Jakub Vrana when Kuznetsov found him alone in the crease. The puck then went into the Capitals zone and was immediately turned over by Lewis. Kuznetsov came back the other way on a two-on-one and had all the time in the world to pick a corner on Quick to make the score 2-1.
Midway through the second, this time it was Holtby giving the puck away along the boards right to Kurtis MacDermid. MacDermid put the puck on net and was tipped past Holtby by Brodzinski to tie the game at twos.
Nine seconds later, off the center ice faceoff, Jokinen caught the Capitals defense napping as he walked in alone on Holtby to give the Kings their first lead of the game.
“The second period has the long change and that’s when you’ve really got to manage the puck,” explained Stevens. “The second period for teams that play fast and got skill and have a good forecheck can be dangerous, but we weathered the storm and came back with a solid third period.”
Despite some of the lapses, the Kings have to be proud of themselves to keep Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom off the scoresheet, especially in the third period. The Kings were able to shut down any offensive threats, allowing Gaborik and Toffoli to score on open nets to seal the Kings third win in a row.
Coming up next for the Kings, they travel to St. Louis for the second half of their back-to-back to take on the Blues. St. Louis is coming off a 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday but prior to that had won four of their last five games. It will be a good test as the Blues still sit atop the Western Conference.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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