Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The LA Kings Gain Confidence With Another Win Over the San Jose Sharks

04/27/2014 at 7:58am EDT

from Lisa Dillman of the LA Times,

“We just gave ourselves a chance to play another game,” Kings center Anze Kopitar said of Game 6, which will be Monday at Staples Center.

“It's a Game 7, obviously, for us again. We're going to enjoy this one tonight and start getting ready tomorrow and same old story, really.”

The Sharks lead the series, three games to two. And Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said he felt like the task was even more daunting, not less so, as L.A. tries to become the fourth team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We came this far to get two,” Doughty said. “And now we need to get two more. … We need to take it one at a time, but that puts even more pressure on us because we can kind of smell it.”

There were only a few similarities to Game 4. But there was a key one: For the second consecutive game, the Kings chased the Sharks' No. 1 goalie, Antti Niemi, who turned in another uneven performance. Niemi gave up three goals on 19 shots, and was pulled just 22 seconds into the second period when King forward Jeff Carter's shot banked off the skate of defenseman Brad Stuart and past Niemi to make it 3-0, on the power play.

read on

added 8:07am, Meanwhile, from the Sharks point of view...

from Kevin Kurz of CSNBayArea,

Earlier in the week, head coach Todd McLellan warned against his team “playing with mulligans” when it was ahead three games to none.

Is that what happened here?

Boyle: “What do you think? You think we went out there and said ‘hey guys, we’ve got three more cracks at this?’ You think that’s what we’re doing? … I can’t even believe that’s a question, but no, we did not.”

Joe Pavelski, who has been unable to finish on several glorious chances the past two games, offered this head-scratcher: “We’re on right now. That switch is on. We’re in playoff mode. It’s been that way for a while.”

On, Joe? Really?

There are mountains of evidence to the contrary indicating the Sharks weren’t prepared at the start of the game, and didn’t get any better after allowing 12 of the first 14 shots on goal and quickly falling behind.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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