Kings Defeat Sharks 6-4

What looked like a very comfortable lead for the Los Angeles Kings suddenly became very necessary, as the Sharks rallied from an 0-4 deficit, scoring 4 straight power play goals before the Kings answered with an ugly goal and an empty netter to secure the win 6-4 Tuesday night.

The story of the game early was poor defense in front of the goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, literally. Wayne Simmons scored his first of the season, scoring the goal off of Nabokov's arm as he made 2 desperate saves sprawling on his side earlier, but got no help from his defenders to stop the third man from crashing the net. Then, on a fresh power play in the second period, Ryan Smyth found himself scoring from a familiar position: inches away from the goal line for an easy tap in. Then off a crazy aerial pass by Michal Handzus, Jack Johnson battled the puck straight out of the air, again directly in front of Nabokov, as he had beat Douglas Murray in a foot race to the front of the net to make it 3-0. Anze Kopitar scored less than a minute later, roofing a slapshot that cleanly beat Nabokov.
Coach Todd McLellon clearly felt that something needed to change, and he pulled Nabokov and put in back-up Thomas Greiss. After Greiss made several spectacular saves, including stuffing a breakaway for Kopitar, the Sharks responded. The Kings took 4 straight power plays, and the Sharks capitalized on every single one. Devin Setoguchi found open space in the slot for a Joe Thornton pass, and wheeled a puck right past Jonathan Quick, who had made spectacular saves all night. Then, in the first of a double minor, Rob Blake crashed the net from the blue line and scored by somehow putting the puck through multiple bodies in the dying seconds of the second period.
In the third period, the Sharks continued the second minor of the double, and Devin Setoguchi found a Dany Heatley rebound for his second score of the game to bring the Sharks within 1. After Heatley took a hooking penalty that he was visibly angry at himself for, he made up for it on another Kings penalty, scoring his first goal as a Shark, rifling a signature shot from the faceoff circle after Dan Boyle made a pass from the blue line to tie the game 4-4. But under 30 seconds later, Teddy Purcell scored from an unimaginable angle, and instantaneously stopped all the momentum the Sharks had. Thomas Greiss was clearly expecting the pass to Jarret Stoll parked in front, but Purcell instead just threw the puck at Greiss's pads from behind the goal line, and it bounced off the inside of his legs and into the net. With 2 minutes left, San Jose pulled Greiss, but could never get the puck into the Los Angeles zone, and the Davis Drewiski scored his first career NHL goal into the empty net to secure the win 6-4.

Nabokov ended the night with 16 saves on 20 shots. Nobody on the San Jose line had a positive plus-minus rating, while nobody in Los Angeles had a negative. Joe Pavelski was injured and did not play on the second line, and was replaced by rookie Benn Ferriero. It was also the first time Patrick Marleau did not score a goal (or a point) this season. The first line did all the scoring for the Sharks, as Setoguchi, Thornton, and Heatley combined for 8 points: 3 goals and 5 assists. Anze Kopitar led the kings with a goal and 2 assists. Jonathan Quick looked spectacular in the first period, stopping 14 out of 14 shots including several second and third chances. San Jose looks to find answers on defense soon, as they'll face Rick Nash and the undefeated Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.