Since the end of the game on Saturday afternoon, the Los Angeles Kings have listened to all of the doubters, haters, and naysayers across the National Hockey League explain that their season was effectively over.
The injury to Justin Williams was compounded by the torn ligaments suffered by Anze Kopitar, ending the season of the top scorer for the club. Without their top two scorers for the rest of the regular season, a team that didn’t exactly remind anyone of the glory day Edmonton Oilers of the mid 1980’s would struggle to defeat even the modern-day Oilers, a last place team headed for another mid-April of tee times.
Well, as ESPN College GameDay analyst Lee Corso is famous for saying, “NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS.”
Dustin Brown scored twice in the second period and Jonathan Bernier did the job between the pipes as the Kings posted a 2-0 shutout victory in Edmonton on Tuesday night. The victory gives the Kings 94 points on the season. With Phoenix winning in a shootout over Dallas, the Kings remain in the fifth place position. The magic number of points to clinch a second consecutive playoff spot is seven.
Bernier stopped all 32 shots he faced for his third shutout this season. Bernier is now 7-1-3 in his last eleven decisions for the Kings. Trevor Lewis played 17:07 ice time in this game, and contributed two great assists on the Brown tallies.
The Kings also won this game because of the faceoff prowess of their top two remaining centers. Jarret Stoll was 16-of-23 on draws, and Michael Handzus went 9-for-16 as well.
Brown registered nine of the Kings 33 shots in the game. Dustin Penner, playing in his first game against his former team since being dealt to the Kings at the trade deadline, did not score but registered two shots on goal in 16:24 of ice time. Penner had two shots blocked and one missed the net, and he also registered three hits to lead the Kings.
The victory was the 22nd on the road for the Kings. The club travels to Vancouver where they will practice tomorrow and then face the Canucks on Thursday night. Vancouver clinched the top spot in the Western Conference with a victory Tuesday over Nashville.
Jon Moncrief is currently in his third season covering the Kings for Examiner.com and you can follow him on Twitter by clicking here. He is also covering the NHL and the Dodgers for Examiner. Additionally, Jon is a featured contributor for Bowl Gamer, and is the co-host of the weekly web-TV show INSIDE SPORTS.
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