Sharks down Kings in OT after 4-goal comeback

Devin Setoguchi

Devin Setoguchi scored the winning goal in overtime, capping off a four-goal comeback, to give the San Jose Sharks a 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in a Game 3 shootout on Tuesday night.

Setoguchi scored the crucial goal at 3:09 in the extra frame after receiving a cross-ice pass from Patrick Marleau, giving his team a 2-1 advantage in the Western Conference quarterfinal.

Ryane Clowe scored two goals while Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, and Marleau added one apiece.

Antero Nittymaki made 11 saves but it was his stabilizing presence that allowed the Sharks to get back into the game after Antti Niemi was pulled, allowing four goals on only the 10 shots, early in the second period.

Brad Richardson had a goal and an assist for the Kings who held a once-thought comfortable advantage, only to see it evaporate by the end of the second.

Jonathan Quick stopped 30 shots but allowed six goals after recording a shutout in Game 2.

SAN JOSE, LOS ANGELES BOXSCORE

Los Angeles came out firing on all cylinders in the first period scoring two goals 13 seconds apart on their two first shots of the game.

Kings defenceman Willie Mitchell scored his first goal of the playoffs at 2:26 in the frame after receiving a pass from Trevor Lewis on a breakaway and shot the puck through a helpless Niemi.

Kyle Clifford scored almost instantly following the opening goal when he accepted a pass in front of the crease from Richardson and chipped it over Niemi to give the Kings an early 2-0 lead.

Los Angeles didn’t rest on its laurels following their early assault on the Sharks goal. Thriving off the energy from a raucous home crowd, the Kings continued the vicious offensive barrage on their opponents while San Jose tried desperately to weather the storm.

The Kings, however, couldn’t be denied. Michal Handzus scored on a snapshot from 25 feet at 18:22 in the period on assists from Dustin Penner and Dustin Brown to give his team the 3-0 advantage going into the first intermission.

The second period started in similar fashion as the Kings scored on their first shot, 44 seconds into the frame. Kings center Richardson intercepted an outlet pass from Ian White and then fired a shot past Niemi to extend the Kings lead to 4-0.

San Jose got their first goal of the night scoring at 3:08 in the period when Marleau redirected a slap pass from Dan Boyle past Quick to cut the deficit to 4-1.

The Sharks clawed back into the game when Clowe scored a power-play goal that took a deflection off Mitchell and found its way in the back of the net to make it 4-2.

San Jose continued to turn momentum in their favour after Couture fired a shot beyond Quick’s grasp  after receiving a nice assist from White at 13:32 in the period to make it 4-3.

Ryan Smyth restored the Kings two-goal lead 15 seconds later, however, with a cross-crease one timer from Jarret Stoll.

Stoll was making his return to the Kings lineup after serving a one-game suspension for an illegal hit on San Jose defenceman White.

The Sharks would not go away and maintained their aggressive play. Eventually they were rewarded when Clowe and Pavelski scored 54 seconds apart to tie the game at 5-5 before the end of the frame.

Clowe scored at 18:35 with a wrist shot after he was left open following a wild scramble where the puck bounced back and forth in front of Quick’s goal. Pavelski took advantage of the undisciplined play of the Kings, scoring after receiving a pass from White, with 31 seconds left in the second period.

Although, the pace of the game failed to maintain its hectic pace entering the final period, the contest remained open with both teams creating numerous opportunities. However, none of the opportunities proved to be fruitful as regulation ended in a deadlock.

Whereas the first game made it to the last five minutes of overtime, this wild affair didn’t make it five minutes into the extra session.

A 3-on-2 rush in favour of the Sharks was created off a neutral zone feed from Niklas Wallin to Marleau. With Thornton heading towards the net as a decoy, the Marleau found Setoguchi trailing the play and at 3:09 a wrist shot over the glove of Quick completed the remarkable comeback.

Game 4 is set to take place on Thursday night at the Staples Center.

About this article

By: T.J. Llewellyn
Posted: Apr 20 2011 2:52 am
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Filed under: Hockey Sports Stanley Cup Playoffs
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1 Comment on "Sharks down Kings in OT after 4-goal comeback"

  1. Nice work T.J. Crazy game!

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