San Jose saw their six-game win streak snapped by the Los Angeles Kings Monday night as Jonathan Quick saved all 22 shots thrown at him. Alex Stalock was almost as good, saving 20 of the 21 Los Angeles shots and breaking a Sharks franchise record in the process, but it wasn’t enough in the 1-0 defeat.
The first period was pretty much what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from Sharks/Kings games over the past few years. These teams do not like each other one bit and it shows in the chippy nature the games take on. Mike Brown tried to prove his worth by checking three different Kings in one shift, which looked a bit like a neglected middle child yelling to their parents “SEE I CAN CLOSE ALL THE CAR DOORS, TOO!”
After a second period that much resembled the first, the Kings turned a great save from Jonathan Quick into a goal by Anze Kopitar. Stalock tried to use a poke check, but Kopitar showed off his great hands by avoiding the check and erasing the netminder’s shutout streak at 178:55, besting the record set by Evgeni Nabokov [170:58]..
San Jose started the third period with nearly a full power play and looked dangerous — getting off three shots on the man-advantage. The Sharks put on a press that resulted in another power play opportunity that was nullified after 10 seconds when Joe Thornton hooked Slava Voynov.
The Sharks started to even up the shot attempt battle late in the game, but they rarely looked dangerous against a Los Angeles team that was asphyxiating one of the league’s top offenses.
[Fancy Stats] – [Kings Reaction]
[Event Summary] – [PBP Log] – [TOI Log] – [Faceoff Report]
- There were 105 shot attempts in this game. 54 were blocked.
- The Kings’ win earned them the season-series victory. They now lead it 3-1.
- This game highlighted the difference between a close game and a great one — I’ll let you decide which category to put it in.
- Neither of the Joe’s scored :(.
- Alex Stalock looked sharp in goal again. Bring on the goalie controversy!
- Bracken Kearns led both teams with five shots on goal.
- This was the first Kings win in San Jose since April 23, 2011 (game five of the playoffs).
- I can’t wait for Jonathan Quick to represent our beautiful country in the Olympics, where he will surely play nowhere near as well as he did tonight.
- There are multiple reports on how long Stalock’s shutout streak was. It was long. Get off my lawn.
- The Sharks went 5/5 on the penalty kill! Isn’t that neat!
- The good news is the Sharks don’t play another tough opponent until Chicago on Saturday.
FTF Three Stars
1st Star: Jonathan Quick
2nd Star: Anze Kopitar
3rd Star: Alex Stalock
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