Kings fans had waited some 45 years for this moment. It finally happened on Saturday, Jan. 19th, 2013 - The first ever Stanley Cup championship banner was raised to the rafters, in front of a delirious standing room only crowd of 18,545. The Kings have now sold out 27 consecutive games, dating back to Dec 3, 2011.
Though the banner raising was fantastic, the game which followed, was somewhat less than stellar. In what was a rather sloppy game, the Kings hosted the Chicago Blackhawks.
Patrick Kane scored on the power play at 3:41 of the 1st period. Marian Hossa and Michael Frolik later scored goals 1 minute and 14 seconds apart, and the Kings found themselves trailing 3-0 at the first intermission.
Any hopes of a quick 2nd period start, were squelched when Jonathan Toews scored at 1:16. Down 4-0, the Kings finally got on the board when Rob Scuderi scored at 18:57 of the period.
Trailing 4-1 to start the third, Kings fans began dreaming of a miracle comeback when Jordan Nolan scored at 9:20 to cut the lead to 4-2.
That glimmer of hope turned to complete darkness just 15 seconds later, when Marian Hossa scored his second goal of the game at the 9:35 mark.
Final score: Blackhawks 5, Kings 2.
Shots on Goal, Chicago 22, Kings 21
Kings Head Coach Darryl Sutter, on whether or not the opening ceremony led to a letdown: "No I don't think so, I think that they scored the 5-on-3 goal and it was a certain letdown. There were penalties called; we nearly had it cleared and the deflection hit Drew (Doughty) and it went in as the second goal - I couldn't tell, but I think it did and we just couldn't get any momentum after that."
Kings Top 2 Forward line combinations for the game:
Richards - Gagne - Brown
Carter - Penner - Williams
Defense pairings:
Scuderi - Doughty
Martinez - Voynov
Greene - Drewiske
** F Anze Kopitar and D Willie Mitchell are both out, due to injury
Kings next game will be against the Avalanche, Tuesday night in Colorado.
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Contact Charles:
Email - Charles@Officialinsidesports.com
Twitter - @TheInsideSports
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