The Los Angeles Kings dominated the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 on Tuesday to continue their playoff transformation and storm to a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Los Angeles have now won seven consecutive post-season games and are two wins short of reaching their first Stanley Cup finals since 1993.
The Kings have never won a Cup title.
“We really want it right now,” Los Angeles forward Dustin Penner told reporters.
“It’s fear that stops you from letting games get away. We use that fear to motivate us,” he said.
The final appeared a distant dream for the Kings, who now have earned the unfamiliar tag of favorites after blowing away West top seeds Vancouver and St Louis in the opening playoff rounds.
Continuing the good work, Jeff Carter came alive with a hat-trick and Jonathan Quick delivered a 24-save shutout to bring Los Angeles closer to the ultimate series.
Dwight King notched a first-period score for the visitors, his third of the series, then Carter took over with a pair of goals in the second and one final one in the third.
Carter became the first Kings player to get a playoff hat-trick since Wayne Gretzky in 1993.
Goaltender Mike Smith made 36 saves, but Phoenix were overmatched.
“We got outcompeted again, outbattled,” Smith said. “In the first period we played a little better and competed a little harder, but it’s not enough.”
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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