LOS ANGELES: Jonathan Quick made 19 saves and the defending National Hockey League champion Los Angeles Kings defeated Chicago 3-1 yesterday, trimming the Blackhawks’ lead in their playoff series to 2-1.
The Kings will try to equalise the best-of-seven Western Conference final at two wins each by capturing game four today before the series shifts back to Chicago. The winner plays either Boston or Pittsburgh for the Stanley Cup.
Justin Williams opened the scoring for the Kings 3:21 into game and Slava Voynov gave Los Angeles a 2-0 edge just 6:37 into the second period.
But Chicago’s Bryan Bickell slid a wrap-around goal past Quick with only 34 seconds remaining in the second period to pull the Blackhawks within one goal entering the final period.
The visitors could not solve Quick again, however, and Dwight King scored the clincher for the Kings into an empty net with 28 seconds remaining after the Blackhawks had pulled goaltender Corey Crawford for an extra attacker.
The Kings were in danger of falling behind 3-0 after dropping the first two games in Chicago, but Williams said the team was relaxed despite the importance of a victory.
“I don’t think we were too uptight at all. We knew what we had to do,” said Williams. “We created pressure, created (15) turnovers and didn’t allow them transition in the neutral zone, which they like.
“We had more time in the offensive zone and we were able to do more things.”
The Kings improved to 8-0 at home in the play-offs with Quick’s third home shutout of the play-offs.
“We had to worry about tonight not what happened before,” Kings defenceman Matt Greene said.
“The goals will come. They may be ugly and we’ll be grinding but they will come.
“Now we have got to get another win. We have got to go back to their building even,” he said.
A physical contest was punctuated when Chicago defenceman Duncan Keith struck the Kings’ Jeff Carter in the face with a one-handed high stick swing, opening a cut on Carter’s chin and drawing four minutes in the penalty box.
“It was an accident,” Keith said. “I wanted to give him a tap. I feel bad where I got him. I’m glad he came back.”
Carter immediately went down; Keith went to the penalty box with a questionably light four-minute minor.
“You can watch the video,” Carter said when asked if it was a dirty play. “Draw your own assumptions.”
Darrell Sutter doesn’t need to see the video. The Kings’ coach has already drawn his assumption.
“It’s retaliation with a stick,” he said. “It’s not a high stick. … Don’t even need video.”
Keith may get a phone call today from Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s director of player safety, who will decide if the incident warrants a suspension.
Whether Keith is allowed to suit up for Game 4 of these Western Conference finals, this much we now know:
The Blackhawks, dominators of the regular season, have a fight on their hands.
“We’re finding ways to win by only scoring a couple of goals and a big part of that is obviously Quick,” said captain Dustin Brown. “He made one save in the third (period) late that saved the game for us.”
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