LOS ANGELES, CA (BDCi) – The Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are Pacific Division rivals who apparently cannot get enough of each other as they want their series to go as many games as possible. The Kings have earned victories in all of their home games while the Sharks earned victories in their two home games. With the series headed back to San Jose for game six would the Kings be able to earn a road win and the series victory? Let’s find out!
The game opened up very poorly for the Kings as they took three penalties within the first five minutes including letting the Sharks earn a 5-3 powerplay. The Sharks would take advantage of that powerplay as Joe Thornton would score his second goal of the playoffs to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. After that the Kings would settle down as they didn’t take any more penalties the rest of the period, however the damage had already been done. Both teams would fire a decent amount of shots on net as the Kings would take nine shots and the Sharks eight, however the score would remain 1-0 after one period of play.
In the second period each team would light the lamp as the Sharks would open the scoring a little over four minutes into the period as T.J. Galiardi would score his first goal of the playoffs to make it 2-0 Sharks. The Kings would finally get on the board a with just over six minutes to play in the second as Dustin Brown scored his third goal of the playoffs to trim the Sharks lead to 2-1. Each goalie would settle down and stop the remainder of the shots they would face that period.
In the third period both goalies were dynamite as Jonathan Quick turned aside all nine shots he faced, however Antti Niemi would turn away all eight he would face as the Kings would fail to score in the third and fall to the Sharks by a score of 2-1.
The series will now travel back to Los Angeles for a decisive game seven where the Kings will look to remain perfect at home and earn a trip to the Conference Finals where they would face the winner of the Chicago Blackhawks vs Detroit Red Wings series.
By: Benjamin Robinson
Source: ESPN
May 26, 2012
8:25 pm PDT