Things got really hairy there, but LA managed to hold on to tonight’s 3-1 lead. At least, they held on to half of it. But that was good enough!
All the players battled hard tonight, but who stood out and who struggled? Distribute your thumbs accordingly.
Best Hockey Players of All Time
Early on, I thought this one was gonna be a bit of a slog, but once Vincent Lecavalier broke the ice on the power play, this game took off. Richard Rakell scored on the next shift on a borderline-impossible tip, the Kings picked things up, Tyler Toffoli banked one in off Sami Vatanen with five to go, and Anze Kopitar’s own impressive deflection past John Gibson brought the Kings to the point of deja vu. David Perron (in his Ducks debut) did everything he wanted to do, cuffing Quick’s head and scoring on a point shot on the same shift, to make LA nervous in the third period. From there, two critical moments where Anaheim looked like they tied it: Andrew Cogliano kicked a puck in, and Jakub Silfverberg and Rickard Rakell connected on a rebound at the same time, sending it wide.
In all of that chaos, though, Quick stopped everything else, and the Kings finally clamped down in the final three minutes to seal the two points… And more importantly, none for their rivals.
More in the recap, including more on Sudden Offensive Threat Vincent Lecavalier.