Kings 4 Canucks 2
VANCOUVER — Dustin Penner scored the winning goal with 3:14 left in the third period as the underdog Los Angeles Kings upset the favoured Vancouver Canucks 4-2 in the opener of their Western Conference quarter-final series Wednesday night.
Los Angeles only secured a playoff berth with three games left in the regular season and entered the series as the clear underdog. Penner had gone the last nine games of the regular season without a goal.
The winger capitalized on a lucky bounce after a Mike Richards pass went off Jeff Carter’s skate, and he whipped the puck past Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo.
Mike Richards, former Canuck Willie Mitchell and Dustin Brown, into an empty net in the final minute, also scored for the Kings.
Alex Burrows and Alex Edler replied for the Canucks.
The Kings outshot the Canucks 39-26. Los Angeles converted two of seven power plays, while the Canucks were blanked on five.
The Canucks finished first overall in the NHL for the second straight season with a 51-22-9 record, while the Kings finished eighth in the Western Conference with a 40-27-15 mark, but the Kings controlled most of the play in the first two periods.
The Canucks hung in as the score was tied 1-1 after the first period and 2-2 after the second.
The game got off to a raucous start as Vancouver wingers David Booth, playing the first playoff game of his career, and Max Lapierre hammered L.A. star defenceman Drew Doughty into the end boards, prompting the sellout crowd of 18,890 to wave their free towels in jubilation.
Moments later, Luongo got his blocker on a Rob Scuderi shot and gloved a Brown wrister.
Burrows opened the scoring 3:17 into the game. Burrows one-timed a pass from Henrik Sedin, which arrived after Sedin fought off Kings defenceman Colin Fraser. Then Burrows fetched a long rebound off Jonathan Quick’s toe, whirled around and beat the L.A. goaltender on the blocker side.
A delay-of-game penalty to Vancouver’s Chris Higgins for shooting the puck over the glass gave the Kings a five-on-three power play for 1:11. But L.A. needed just 10 seconds to forge a 1-1 tie as Richards beat Luongo with a shot through the legs from a sharp angle.
The goal came after Vancouver’s Sammy Pahlsson won a face-off in the Canucks end and sent the puck back to teammates. But they promptly gave it away, allowing the Kings to get the puck to Richards.
Early in the second period, Quick lived up to his surname as he slid across the crease to foil Ryan Kesler on a wraparound attempt.
The Kings had five straight power plays in an 11-minute span covering the first and second periods but could not score.
Vancouver winger Byron Bitz gave them another chance at 12:12 of the second as he received a boarding major and game misconduct for slamming Kyle Clifford face-first into the glass. Clifford stayed on the bench a while afterward, then left the game and did not return.
Mitchell put in a point shot off Pahlsson’s stick with less than a minute to go in the five-minute man-advantage opportunity.
The Canucks drew even with just eight seconds left in the second period as Alex Edler’s point shot hit Brown’s stick, bounced off the ice and then went high past a screened Quick.
Game 2 is Friday night in Vancouver.