ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball
LOS ANGELES -- Everything fell into place for the Los Angeles Kings to take hold of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference on Thursday.
Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Jordan Nolan ended goal-scoring droughts of at least 19 games in a 8-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Staples Center.
The Kings (38-25-14) tied the Winnipeg Jets with 90 points and own the first tiebreaker with more regulation/overtime wins. Los Angeles also got help in the Western standings because three teams ahead of them, the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild, all lost.
The Oilers (23-42-13) went 0-2-0 on their Southern California trip and were outscored 13-3 on consecutive nights against the Kings and Anaheim Ducks after a three-game winning streak.
Brown ended a 19-game scoring drought and Doughty a 24-game drought in a first-period blitz for the Kings, whose three goals in the first 9:13 of the game equaled their total from their previous four home games. Doughty capped the outburst with a wrist shot through traffic for his first goal since Feb. 7. It gave the Kings three goals on six shots.
Brown threaded a wrist shot from a steep angle on the left side 2:23 into the game for his first goal since Feb. 18. Marian Gaborik scored off Anze Kopitar's saucer pass on a 3-on-3 rush at 7:07.
Nolan ended a 20-game scoring drought when he drove to the net and stuffed the puck past Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens to give the Kings a 4-1 lead at 12:14 of the second.
Jeff Carter scored his team-leading 27th and 28th goals, on the power play at 18:38 of the second and on a breakaway at 9:21 of the third, and the Kings got their first eight-goal game since April 1, 2010. Fourteen players made the scoresheet for Los Angeles.
Edmonton goalie Tyler Bunz made his NHL debut when he was inserted for the third period and allowed two goals on his first four shots, which prompted Oilers coach Todd Nelson to call timeout while Scrivens gave Bunz a pep talk.
Kings center Jarret Stoll returned after a nine-game absence because of a head injury.
The Oilers have lost their past six games at Staples Center and been outscored 25-5 in that streak.
CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball / RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music, Soaps
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99
Babe Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
No comments:
Post a Comment