Reigning playoff MVP Jonathan Quick made 25 saves as defending champions the Los Angeles Kings advanced to the NHL playoff semi-finals on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks.
Right wing Justin Williams scored both Los Angeles goals and Quick made several key stops down the stretch as the Kings held on in the deciding game to win the Western Conference playoff series four games to three.
“I felt like I could have had three or four goals tonight. I had quite a few opportunities, but I will take the two,” Williams said.
Photo: AFP
After a scoreless first period, Williams busted through with two goals in three minutes for Los Angeles, who won their first Stanley Cup championship a year ago behind the brilliant goaltending of All-Star Quick, who picked up the 2012 Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup finals.
“We couldn’t get one extra past Quick, that’s probably what it was,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “They got a power-play goal that we didn’t get. The second one they got was when we had overextended a shift and they took advantage. So in the end we probably made one more mistake than they did.”
Heading into Game 7, the home team had won every game in this evenly matched all-California series and the fifth-seeded Kings kept that streak alive on Tuesday in front of a crowd of 18,593 at the Staples Center arena.
Photo: AFP
Los Angeles claimed games 1, 2 and 5, while San Jose grabbed games 3 and 4 at the Shark Tank arena before leveling the series at 3-3 with a 2-1 win at home on Sunday.
The 31-year-old Williams scored twice in the second period on Tuesday before Dan Boyle finally beat Quick at the 5:26 mark of the third period.
Quick closed the door after that, making one superb stop after another, including a brilliant glove save off Sharks forward Joe Pavelski from in close late in the third.
“Toughest loss of my life tonight,” San Jose’s T.J. Galiardi said. “We left it all out there, but it hurts to be eliminated.”
The Kings are now 4-4 in franchise history in Game 7s. The last time they played in one was in 2002 when Colorado beat them four games to none to take the opening-round series. The Sharks are 5-3 all-time in Game 7s.
“They are as good as us. It was a low-scoring series, just crazy,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.
Los Angeles are now a perfect 7-0 at home in the post-season and have won 14 consecutive games at the Staples Center, where their last loss was to the Vancouver Canucks on March 23.
The Kings next face the winner of a quarter-final series between Chicago and Detroit. That series also went to seven games, with the deciding game set for last night.
“Both Detroit and Chicago are going to be very challenging. We have a lot to prepare for,” Quick said.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
RSS