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 Brown won't forget Sunday night, however. His first career
playoff goal and continued physical play sparked the Sharks to score
seven consecutive goals during a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings,
who led 2-0 after one period.
"All these playoff games are going to be interesting," Brown said.
"This is where players love to play. Everyone's working toward the
same goal. In games like this, you don't stop playing, you don't
give up."
Looking to avenge a second-round loss to the Kings last year, San
Jose took a 2-0 lead in its best-of-seven playoff series that
resumes with Game 3 in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
"I don't think this series is going to play out in blowouts like
this night after night," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "They're a
very good hockey team, they'll find their game and they're going to
push us and we have to be prepared for that."
It took the Sharks 84:07 of this year's series to score the same
number of goals — 10 — that they scored in a seven-game second-round series
loss last year against Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. Then they went
two better at the SAP Center.
"He's probably the best goalie in the league," Sharks captain Joe
Thornton said. "We've been working hard for our goals ... scoring
seven, it was just a weird night."
The Sharks tied a franchise playoff record for goals in playoff
game, set a record for consecutive goals in a playoff game, tied a
team mark for goals in a period with four in the third and tied a
record for home margin of victory.
Losers 6-3 in Game 1 when they surrendered the first five goals, the
Kings responded by scoring twice in the first period despite getting
outshot 15-10. Quick was on top of his game as all signs pointed
toward a knotted series.
But the Sharks' overall balance from the first through the fourth
line was evident again. San Jose managed three goals during a
turn-the-tables second period and put icing on the cake with a
four-goal explosion in the third.
"We were in this same situation last year," Kings captain Dustin
Brown said. "We came up here twice and didn't get anything that we
wanted."
San Jose's energetic fourth line turned the tide in the second
period. Center Andrew Desjardins jumped on left winger Kyle
Clifford's turnover, fed Brown in the slot and his one-timer beat a
surprised Quick at 4:25.
Right winger Raffi Torres capped an odd sequence in which the line
was hemmed in its defensive end only to break out and score on the
rush. His second goal in as many games from the inside edge of the
right circle fooled Quick at 9:04.
Then it was defenseman Justin Braun blindly throwing a puck at the
net from the right point that went through right winger Tommy
Wingels' screen past Quick at 14:45 as the building exploded with
noise.
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"I was just looking at the guy's feet in front of me," Braun said of
the Kings' defender. "Luckily, it found its way in."
"They had a quite a few chances, actually, in the first period as
well," Kings right winger Justin Williams said. "We were able to get
up 2-0, but we felt that next goal was extremely important and they
were able to get it, we weren't, and they carried their momentum.
Plain and simple, their players beat ours every way tonight."
Instead of sitting back with a one-goal lead and a period to go, the
Sharks turned up the speed in the third. Left winger Patrick Marleau
capped a three-on-two break at 1:08 with his second of the series — a blast from the left wing that Quick was late to cover.
Left winger Joe Pavelski took advantage of a bad LA line change at
4:07 to make it 5-2. At 8:08, Marleau fed center Logan Couture on a
two-on-one for goal No. 6 and Thornton finished the offensive
barrage with a five-on-three power-play goal at 10:06.
"Success has only been two games, there's a lot more left," McLellan
said. "You need to have everybody stirring the drink. We got good
mileage out of about everybody who dressed."
NOTES: Los Angeles made one lineup change, dressing D Matt Greene as
a seventh defenseman and sitting RW Jordan Nolan to leave 11
forwards. RW Linden Vey and LW Tanner Pearson were also healthy
scratches for the Kings. ... The Sharks have opted to wear their
third-jersey all-black sweaters during home games throughout the
playoffs. ... San Jose is 13-18 all time in Game 2, including 8-7 at
home. ... Veteran RW Martin Havlat was a healthy scratch again.
Havlat came to the Sharks with the reputation as a playoff
performer, but he was scoreless in two games last spring before
getting injured in the opener of the second-round series against the
Kings and failed to return. Havlat has two goal and three points in
seven career playoff games as a Shark after scoring 19 goals and 49
points in 67 games with Ottawa and Chicago. RW Tyler Kennedy, LW
Bracketn Kearns, D Matt Irwin and D Matt Tennyson also were San Jose
healthy scratches.
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