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The Los Angeles Kings’ Jeff Carter along with two rookies who have been outstanding this post-season, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson, have been a great team helping the LA Kings rally from deficits in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup. It didn’t take long for them to make am impact in the Western Conference Finals. Carter had two assists and 1 goal to help the Kings defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in Game 3 that took place in Staples Center on Saturday night. Jonathan Quick, which I don’t get tired of talking about, had a total of 24 saves, some of which that saved the Kings from either falling behind or tying the game against the Blackhawks. Voynov (2), Toffoli (6), and Doughty (2), also had goals in game 3 that helped them take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Final.
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As the 1st period took place, the Hawks came in strong like they always do in each game, but the Kings, who had home court advantage, also came strong, and stronger than ever before. In the past two games, the Hawks have scored first but the Kings have come back to win the games and break the curse of the first team scoring winning the match. 5 minutes into the game Jonathan Toews opened the score to take the 1-0 lead. Toews stripped it off Justin Williams, took it up the left boards, faked a slapper and then wrist shot the puck into the net.
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But it wasn’t even a minute after the Hawks scored that the Kings tied up the game. In a power play, Voynov had helped from a King’s team that had fast movement and assists from Carter and Doughty helped Voynov slap shot the puck into the net.
In the 13th minute, Toews scored again for the Hawks to give them a 2-1 lead in the 1st period.
In the second period, it looked like the Kings got a good speech from Coach Sutter because they looked stronger than they did in the 1st period in the offense and defense. Carter got the Kings even at 2-2 8 minutes into the 2nd period who had assists form Tanner Pearson and one of the officials. Defenseman from the Hawks, Johnny Oduya tried to get the puck out of their danger zone by slapping it around the boards but the puck hit one of the officials and Pearson was able to recover it, find Carter in front for a wrist shot and get it behind the net.
Toffoli put the Kings in the lead for the first time in Game 3 at 14:19. Shortly after a power play, Carter deflected the puck in the neutral zone and helped Toffoli get past the Chicago back line, race in alone on Corey Crawford and slip the puck under Crawford’s left pad for the 3-2 lead.
The Kings came in even stronger in the 3rd period to take a 4-2 lead with a goal from Drew Doughty and assists coming from Jake Muzzin and Justin Williams. Doughty took a pass form Muzzin at the right point and slammed a shot form above the top of the right circle that ended up going in through the defensemen line of the Hawks and past Crawford.
With 5 seconds left to go, Patrick Sharp was able to get the lead down to 4-3 but it wasn’t enough for the Hawks to tie the game.
The Kings will have home court advantage in game 4 of the Western Conference Final and with this game it will definitely help define the series. Game 4 will take place Monday night at 9PM ET/6PM PT on NBC Sports Network.
1st Period
05:26 CHI: SHG – Jonathan Toews (7) Wrist Shot – ASST: None 1-0 CHI
6:16 LAK: PPG – Slava Voynov (2) Slapshot – ASST: Jeff Carter (10), Drew Doughty (10) 1-1 Tie
13:19 CHI: Jonathan Toews (8) Wrist Shot – ASST: MIchal Rozsival (4), Marian Hossa (12) 2-1 CHI
2nd Period
08:08 LAK: Jeff Carter (8) Wrist Shot – ASST: Tanner Pearson (8) 2-2 Tie
14:19 LAK: Tyler Toffoli (6) Wrist Shot – ASST: Jeff Carter (11), Willie Mitchell (2) 3-2 LAK
3rd Period
11:57 LAK: Drew Doughty (2) Slapshot – ASST: Jake Muzzin (5), Justin Williams (7) 4-2 LAK
19:55 CHI: Patrick Sharp (3) Tip-in – ASST: Nick Leddy (4) 4-3 LAK