“You should be able to shut that game down.” – Kings coach Terry Murray
Yet, perfection is a difficult thing to maintain.
Coming into Monday night’s game with the Dallas Stars, the Kings had an 19-0-0 record when leading after two periods this season.
That’s no longer the case.
LA scored the first goal of the game and led 2-1 after forty minutes. Then, within the first three minutes of the third, the teams traded goals – including a beautiful goal by Kyle Clifford – to make it 3-3.
A few minutes later Drew Doughty had his pocket picked by Jamie Benn, who skated all the way down to the other end and scored short-handed.
It went to overtime and who else but Brenden Morrow sealed the deal for the Stars. In 61 career games versus Los Angeles he has 19 goals (second only to his 21 against Phoenix). More specifically, in 31 games at Staples Center he’s scored 10 goals (tops on his tour around the league).
Five other game notes (and video highlights):
* Mike Ribeiro, who scored the first goal for the Stars now has 39 points in 37 career games vs. the Kings.
* The power play, something talked about quite a bit at Dean Lombardi’s meeting with season ticket holders on Sunday, continued to look dreadful – and is now giving up short-handed goals to make matters worse.
* Even before his goal, Clifford was having his best game in weeks. He looked energized and focused throughout the game. He also laid a big time (legal) hit on Benn that earned him the Panasonic Hit of the Game.
* This was Dustin Penner‘s fifth game against the Stars since January 11th. He had an assist to mark the occasion.
* Anze Kopitar had two shots on goal – in a game where the Kings spent considerable time on the power play too. That’s now three shots on goal TOTAL in the last three games.
Video highlights courtesy of the NHL and Fox Sports West…
The Mayor
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Stop reading this.
No, seriously. Stop reading this right now.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Even do yourself a favor – take one more deep breath just for good measure.
We know the struggle is real, but hockey is almost here. It’s nearly that time again.
With the NHL Rookie Faceoff event in Irvine just a few […]