King finally score as they battle to even the series
LAS VEGAS — The longer the game went on, the more confidence the Kings gathered that they could pull this out.
It was evident in a third period that saw their forecheck pick up steam, their makeshift defensive crew swiftly move the puck out of their end and Jonathan Quick close the door, save by save.
With do-everything defenseman Drew Doughty watching the game in a suit in the press box because of a one-
suspension, the Kings put themselves in position for victory with a gutty pushback late in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Rookie Paul LaDue’s first playoff goal, in the second period, equalized Alex Tuch’s power-play goal in the first period, as the 1-1 game played into a second overtime Friday in front of 18,588 fans at T-Mobile Arena.
Quick made 34 saves in regulation against Marc-Andre Fleury in a matchup of two playoff-tested goaltenders and a white-knuckle overtime in which the Kings almost prevailed early because of a power play on Vegas’ delay-of-game penalty for sending the puck over the glass. Anze Kopitar also missed a quality chance in the extra period.
The challenge was huge and the stage set for either an unsurprising loss or a statement win because of the absence of Doughty.
The Kings played three defensemen with a total of two games of playoff experience in LaDue, Kevin Gravel and Oscar Fantenberg. Gravel made his NHL playoff debut after Fantenberg and LaDue made theirs in Game 1.
Jake Muzzin was not an option as he continued to wear a no-contact jersey in practice. Coach John Stevens also made a notable move to sit Alex Iafallo and put Tanner Pearson back in Iafallo’s usual spot at top line left wing.
After all that adjustment, LaDue scored the first goal of the series for the Kings, with some help from Pearson. LaDue played less than 10 minutes on the power play during the season but was put on the No. 1 unit with all the changes.
He wristed the puck from the right side with Pearson in front and his shot might have deflected off Vegas defenseman Derek Engelland on its way into the net. That ended a streak of nearly 96 minutes of scoreless play by the Kings to start the series.
The score was somewhat of a life preserver to the Kings. Part of their strategy to minimize Doughty’s absence was to establish more offensive zone time to take responsibility away from the defense. But they had trouble moving the puck out of their own zone and got a measly 12 shots in the first two periods.
Doughty missed his first playoff game, which ended a streak of 82 consecutive postseason games since he entered the league in 2008, and his first game of any kind since 2014.
It was no small setback to overcome. Dustin Brown compared Doughty to Hall of Fame defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and Scott Niedergame mayer, but with more edge.
“I think Dewey has a little bit more cowboy in him than those guys do, but if you went around the league and asked guys, they don’t want to play against Drew,” Brown said in the morning.
That applies to the Doughty on the Kings’ No.1rated penalty kill, which had quashed all 16 Vegas power plays, regular season included, until Tuch’s conversion with four seconds left on a goalie-interference penalty to Kyle Clifford.
Jonathan Marchessault shot the puck wide, so the puck bounced off the boards for Tuch to swipe home nearly 15 minutes in to give Vegas and its crowd another energized start.
The Kings were outshot 12-4 in the first period and it seemed worse from the way Vegas was grabbing the puck from the Kings at times. But the Kings eventually got back to their game to fulfill a prediction that Alec Martinez made in the morning.
“I have all the confidence in the world in this hockey club and I think we’ll rise to the occasion,” Martinez said.