Los Angeles completed a story-book comeback from a 3-0 series deficit by beating San Jose 5-1 on Wednesday to progress to the second round of the NHL playoffs along with Minnesota and the New York Rangers, who had more nerve-wracking victories.
The Kings’ season seemed to be as good as over after they lost the first three games of the series, but they rallied to score three consecutive victories that squared the tally at 3-3 before completing their remarkable comeback in front of a stunned San Jose crowd.
Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Tyler Toffoli, Dustin Brown and Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings, who became the fourth NHL team to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.
Photo: AFP
The Kings joined Toronto (1942), the New York Islanders (1975) and Philadelphia (2010) as the only franchises to achieve the feat, and must now contest another California showdown in their second-round clash with neighbors Anaheim.
Matt Irwin scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who added perhaps their most bitter playoff loss to a litany of disappointing defeats. San Jose boast the second-highest amount of regular-season wins in the NHL over the past 10 seasons, but have never made it past the conference finals.
In Wednesday’s other clashes, Minnesota’s Nino Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game in overtime to give the Wild a 5-4 win over Colorado and a 4-3 series victory.
Minnesota were trailing 4-3 before Jared Spurgeon scored on a sweet play with 2 minutes, 27 seconds left in regulation.
Mikko Koivu and Dany Heatley had the other goals, while Ilya Bryzgalov pulled off a big save for the Wild to help them win their first playoff series in 11 years and set up a second-round clash with defending Stanley Cup champions Chicago.
Nick Holden, Jamie McGinn, Paul Stastny and Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche.
In the day’s remaining game, New York’s Daniel Carcillo and Benoit Pouliot scored second-period goals to give the Rangers a 2-1 win over Philadelphia.
The Rangers improved to 6-0 in Game 7s at Madison Square Garden and are to face Metropolitan Division rivals Pittsburgh in the next round starting today.
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