May 23, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar (11) skates off after scoring a goal past San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31) in the second period of game five of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Pushed to The Brink- Goals from Anze Kopitar and Slava Voynov book-ended between the end of the second and beginning of the third periods combined with 24 rather routine looking saves by Kings’ goalie Jonathan Quick lifted Los Angeles to a 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. The Game 5 win for the Kings in this Western Conference Semi-Final Series gives the Kings a 3-2 series lead as the defending Stanley Cup Champions did not disappoint a sell out crowd at the Staples Center. Quick picked up his second shut out of the series as he also blanked the Sharks in Game 1 over a week ago. The Sharks from the onset seemed to be out of sinc and never found their game in what turned out to be another long evening at the Staples Center. The Sharks had three power play opportunities in the game and on each one not only failed to even come close to scoring, but allowed the Kings a short handed scoring chance on each of the three opportunities. The Sharks now head back to San Jose and look towards Game 6 and defending their home ice with the objective of forcing a seventh game in Los Angeles this next Tuesday.

Choppy Waters- In the opening period the Kings carried the majority of the play as about a good 70 to 75 percent or more of the period was played in the Sharks defensive zone. Sharks goalie Antti Niemi make key saves early while his counterpart Quick was barely challenged at all. The Kings outshot the Sharks 9-6 in the opening period, and repeated this in the second period outshooting team teal again by a 9-5 margin. The Sharks continued to struggle with puck possession in second period and had very few scoring opportunities to speak of. One of their best chances of the entire evening was on their only break away of the game, a two on one opportunity with Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau leading the way. Couture managed to get the feed pass to Marleau, who then could only watch a Quick stoned him once again.

The Sharks were also mistake prone in the second period and turned over the puck in front of Niemi three times. Luckily for the Sharks at that point of the game it was still 0-0 as the Kings missed a few point blank opportunities. However the Sharks luck would eventually run dry as they were just never able to sustain any meaningful possessions of the puck or offensive attacks. Kopitar’s goal with just 1:52 remaining in the second period came as the Sharks looking like a tired group and not able to clear the puck away from their defensive zone. Kyle Clifford launched a hard shot that hit Niemi and bounced over to Kopitar, who was able to gather the rebound and knock it off Niemi’s skate and into the net. It didn’t help that Matt Irwin had accidentally knocked Niemi’s stick out of his hands before Clifford launched his slap shot from the right point. Soon after the Kings took the lead TJ Galiardi would called for goalie interference. The penalty came with 1:10 remaining in the second period and ultimately would overlap into the third.

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May 21, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31) gathers the puck ahead of Los Angeles Kings center Tyler Toffoli (73) during the second period of game four of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at HP Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Getting Things Even- Antti Niemi made 13 saves in the third period as the San Jose Sharks weathered a late huge ice storm from the Los Angeles Kings in route to a 2-1 victory before a sold out house at The Shark Tank. With the victory the Sharks have held serve taking Games Three and Four to even the best of seven Western Conference Semi-Finals series at two games apiece. The Sharks now have not only made this a series against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, they have created a scenario where now the series has become a best two out of three match with the winner advancing to the Western Conference Finals next week. Niemi, who is one of the main reasons the Sharks are in the post season in the first place, has given up only two goals to the Kings in their last two games on 50 total shots on goal. The Sharks are still having a tough time with Kings’ goalie Jonathan Quick, who kept Los Angeles in the game when the Sharks were hitting the Kings hard early on.

On The Attack Early- The Sharks came out of the gates for Game 4 well rested and ready for the task at hand and made their presence felt early and often. Team teal did an impressive job of dominating much of the play in the opening period limiting the Kings to just three shots on goal, and defensively not allowing a single puck to get to Niemi in the final 10:02 of frame. The Sharks attack hammered Kings’ goalie Quick early getting six shots on goal in the first five minutes of the contest. The Sharks broke though with just over six minutes gone in the first period when Brent Bruns took a perfect feed pass from Sharks Captain Joe Thornton and drilled the puck past Quick’s right into an open area of the net. The opportunity was created when Burns launched a hard shot on goal that blocked by the Kings’ Mike Richards. Thornton was in the right spot to pick up the puck after Richards’ shot blocking effort. Thornton then and found Burns who had managed to clear himself of the Kings defenders, who happened to be moving in on Thornton. Once in receipt of Thornton’s feed pass, Burns drilled the rubber biscuit into the net to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. The Sharks would get two power play opportunities later in the period however were not able to take advantage of either one as Quick slammed the door on the four shot attempts he saw. Tommy Wingles managed to get a puck past Quick on the Sharks second power play try, but his wrist shot hit the goal post and bounced away harmlessly.

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May 18, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture (39) is congratulated by defenseman Brent Burns (88) and center Scott Gomez (23) after scoring the game-winning goal against the Los Angeles Kings in overtime of game three of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at HP Pavilion. The San Jose Sharks defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Logan’s Run To Victory- Logan Couture’s game winning goal 89 seconds into the first overtime period lifted the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 victory of the Los Angeles Kings in Game 3 of their best of seven Western Conference Semi-Final Series. The Sharks, facing a 0-3 series deficit with a loss benefited from the very sequence that cost them Game 2, only this time it was the Kings who were being escorted to the penalty box towards the end of the third period. With 41 seconds remaining in regulation, Robyn Regehr was called for tripping. With just 4.5 seconds remaining, the Kings’ Trevor Lewis was called for goalie interference when the Los Angeles had a huge short handed opportunity that was wasted when Lewis threw an elbow at Niemi. The Sharks would have 1:18 of a 5 on 3 man advantage on the power play. If that failed, team teal would still have 37 extra seconds of power play time to start the extra period. On the five on three power play to start the overtime, the Sharks were almost trying to be too fine with the puck and look for the perfect pass before taking any shots, a very conservative approach given the gravity of what was at stake. The five on three would expire with the Sharks getting just on shot on goal on Kings’ goalie Jonathan Quick. However, the Sharks by this time had picked up some level of momentum and Couture was in the right place at the right time and was able to hammer the game winning goal past Quick getting the rebound of a scoring attempt by Patrick Marleau. The win is huge for the Sharks being a must win against a team that was just itching to bury them in an 0-3 hole.

Opening Act- The Sharks opened the game being the aggressor and it would pay off early as team teal was able to draw the Kings’ Jake Muzzin into a penalty. Muzzin trying to clear the puck out of the Kings’ defensive zone cleared the rubber biscuit over the glass putting team teal on an early power play. The Sharks wasted no time at all as off of the face off Joe Pavelski got the puck over to Patrick Marleau. Once in possession of the puck Marleau the fed Dan Boyle at the point. Boyle then drilled a 50 foot slap shot that beat Quick giving the Sharks a huge jump out of the gate at 1-0. The Sharks would continue to press Quick but he soon would settle in and be his usual difficult to score on self. The Sharks may have gotten a little over confident in their aggressiveness and it would cost them as they got careless with the puck in their own defensive zone half way into the opening period. Shortly after a Sharks power play had ended unsuccessfully, goalie Antti Niemi left his net area to retrieve a loose puck would clear the puck over to Brad Stuart. Once Stuart had the puck he tried to clear it down ice and instead accidentally put it in an area where the Kings’ Tyler Toffoli intercepted it near the Sharks net. Toffoli immediately launched a backhanded shot that beat Niemi to tie the game.

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