The Los Angeles Kings' 2013 postseason began with two things the 2012 edition hardly saw at all: adversity and spotty goaltending from Jonathan Quick. Two losses later, the Kings headed back to the Staples Center for Game 3 with the St. Louis Blues hoping to refind the 2012 team's success in a lot of areas -- most notably, Game 3s. Last year's group went 4-for-4 in that regard.
I hate to dwell on the "one year ago" theme, but all L.A. had to do was look to 2012 to know how difficult it is to come back when you go down 0-3. They put every one of their Western Conference opponents in that hole, and we know how that turned out.
They needed this one.
And they got it, thanks to a return to form by Jonathan Quick, who stopped all 30 shots he faced in a 1-0 shutout victory.
The lone goal-scorer? Slava Voynov, who hung back during a massive scramble in front of Brian Elliot, only to have the puck trickle out to him. Here's what he did with it:
Tough to fault Elliott for losing sight of the puck in that chaotic scene.
The Blues pushed hard to equalize -- 22 of their 30 shots in this game came after Voynov's goal, and St. Louis outshot LA 10 to 2 in the third -- but they couldn't beat Quick.
Once more to the well of 2012: it goes without saying that St. Louis still has last year's embarrassing five-game ouster in the back of their minds, and they wanted so badly to return the favour.
Instead, now they have a series. The home team has won every game through three, and if they don't stop the trend Monday night, they'll be going back to St. Louis having squandered their two-game lead.
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