I told several folk tonight that I felt whoever won game 3 would win this opening round series and if that’s the case, Kings fans are feeling better now after a 1-0 shaky win over the Blues who now lead the series 2 games to one. The lone L.A goal was scored by Slava Voynov in the 2nd period against Brian Elliot who only had to stop 20 other L.A. shots.

The Kings got sloppy way too many times in their own zone tonight something I reminded the guys of afterwards. Some agreed and others didn’t (or wouldn’t admit to it) but all I know is that goalie Jonathan Quick had to be ‘Gumby’ on ice at times with chances coming from all angles. Quicky stopped all 30 shots on goal while his buddy Justin Williams saved the day on maybe the Blues best scoring chance with about 5 minutes left by diving to clear the puck away from an empty goal mouth and he reacted even Quicker than Quick!

I got Justin’s reaction to that and much more afterwards along with some other key players tonight…

Quick gets confetti and congrats after a big shutout win

L.A. right winger Justin Williams:

L.A. goalie Jonathan Quick after his 5th career playoff shutout:

L.A captain Dustin Brown:

Kings center Anze Kopitar who hasn’t scored since March 25 but will take a 1-0 win:

Kings coach Darryl Sutter who was mostly finished when I walked into his postgame newser…I did ask him about goals being at a premium in this series, and he playfully stuck it to me by telling me to do my homework LOL:

And on my way out, it was great timing to run into ex-Ducks center and really good guy Andy McDonald who gave me his perspective on the game and series from the Blues point of view:

The Kings had the best home points percentage in franchise history this year at 19-4-1 and finished the regular season with seven straight wins at Staples and will need some of that extra tasty home-cookin’ on Monday night to get this series even and I’ll be here to get you all the puck talk you can digest. Remember that if the Kings and Ducks advance to the 2nd round and San Jose defeats Vancouver…it will be hockey heaven in So-Cal with L.A. vs. Anaheim. And that would be about damned time!!!! 🙂

All I know now is that I must finally get out here still at the arena at 1am…because as Coach Sutter told me, I need to get some homework done so I can learn this game better! Good night! 😉