Tuesday, May 06, 2014
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Quick, Kings Go Home With 2-0 Lead On Ducks

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[May 06, 2014]  ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Kings made themselves at home again in the home of the Anaheim Ducks.

Defenseman Alec Martinez scored a tiebreaking, first-period goal, and goaltender Jonathan Quick made sure it stood up, giving the Kings a 3-1 victory over the Ducks before a sellout crowd of 17,281 at Honda Center on Monday night.

Los Angeles heads home to Staples Center with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.

"It doesn't even feel like being on the road," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "We played really good in this building during the regular season. It was the same for us tonight."

The Kings ran their winning streak to six, including their rally from a 3-0 series deficit in the opening round of the playoffs against the San Jose Sharks. Game 3 is Thursday at Staples Center.

Quick gave up an early power-play goal to Anaheim left winger Patrick Maroon but stonewalled the Ducks from that point on.

"He was pretty good tonight, but if you don't get traffic in front of him and you don't go to the net, you're not going to score," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "If he can see everything, he's going to stop it."
 


Quick stopped 36 shots, while Ducks netminder Jonas Hiller finished with 14 saves.

"He was good tonight," Sutter said of his goalie. "He was the best player on the ice."

Anaheim was the aggressor on offense for much of the contest, outshooting Los Angeles 27-9 over the final two periods, including a 15-4 advantage in the third, but had nothing to show for it.

"I'm ticked off right now," Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf said. "We're in playoff time right now. There are no excuses for anything. We have to be better, I have to be better, and I expect our group to respond."

The Ducks will be forced to dig themselves out a hole at Staples or face elimination.

"All we can control is us," Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. "I'm sure they think they've played two good games and they've kind of got unlucky bounces. We're fine with that. We're up 2-0, and we're excited to go back to Staples and win a game there."

Center Anze Kopitar extended his points streak to nine games with an assist on right winger Marian Gaborik's first-period goal. Kopitar, who had three assists in Los Angeles' 3-2 overtime win in the series opener Saturday, has 14 points (four goals, nine assists) in the playoffs.

Gaborik, whom the Kings obtained from the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 5, wasted little time putting the Kings on the board, taking a pass from Kopitar and drilling a shot past Hiller for a 1-0 lead just 34 seconds into the game. It was Gaborik's sixth goal of the playoffs and his third in two games against the Ducks.

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"That's not the start that we expect of our group, especially up front," Getzlaf said. "That's not the way we can start a hockey game. That's on us. We tried to work and get back at it after that. You can't sulk on those things. We were able to respond pretty quickly after that."

Maroon's wrist shot tied the score on a power-play goal at 9:40 of the first, but the Ducks couldn't get anything else past Quick.

"It's a whole team effort," Doughty said. "(Quick) comes up with big saves when he needs to, and that's what great goalies do."

The Kings took the lead when Martinez ripped a shot by Hiller for a 2-1 advantage with 7:53 remaining in the opening period. Martinez scored a goal for the second straight game.

Left winger Dwight King added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining.

NOTES: An assist on a goal by LW Patrick Maroon gave Ducks C Ryan Getzlaf eight points in the past six games. ... Los Angeles D Robyn Regehr, who was hurt on a first-period hit in Game 1 by Anaheim RW Teemu Selanne, was scratched from Monday's contest. D Jeff Schultz, who made his debut, replaced Regehr. ... Kings D Willie Mitchell missed his third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. Mitchell was injured in Game 6 of the opening-round series against the San Jose Sharks. ... The Kings recalled C Colin Fraser, D Andrew Bodnarchuk, D Andrew Campbell, D Brayden McNabb, RW Linden Vey and G J.F. Berube from AHL Manchester on Sunday. ... Game 4 will be played Saturday at Staples Center before the series returns to Anaheim for Game 5 on May 12, if necessary.

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

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