LA PLAYS SMARTER
KINGS GET BACK IN THE SERIES
LA DROPS COLORADO, 3-1
AVS LEAD SERIES, 2-1
LOS ANGELES -- Although they continued to play a much more up-tempo game than
they usually do, the Los Angeles Kings played a smarter, more physical game in
front of an overflow crowd of 18,519 at Staples Center on Monday night, and
defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1.
The Kings are now back in the series, but the Avs still have a 2-1 lead in the
best-of-seven quarterfinals playoff series, with Game four on Tuesday night at
Staples Center.
Leading the way was the dominant play of the line of Jason Allison, Adam
Deadmarsh and Ziggy Palffy.
"That line was dominant tonight," Avalanche head coach Bob Hartley said. "That
line was the best line out there on both teams and that's the reason they won."
An understatement, to be sure, as Palffy scored two goals and added an assist.
Allison scored a goal and added two assists. Deadmarsh also contributed an
assist.
"We are scoring a lot of goals. That's a big surprise right now," Palffy said.
"We're creating a lot of chances. We have a lot of confidence."
Although the Kings ended the regular season with Palffy playing on the Kings'
second line, Palffy was reunited with Allison and Deadmarsh for the playoffs.
And they have been hotter than flame, combining for seven goals and nine
assists for sixteen points in the three games.
"We just felt that we needed to have a unit that we could really lean on,"
explained Kings' head coach Andy Murray about reuniting the line. "They played
a couple of games near the end where we put them together and I thought we
would go to it. We just felt it was a good combination and a good time to do
it."
A good combination indeed.
"We're the guys that are supposed to score on the team," Allison said. "More
nights than not, we're the ones that should score the goals. We're going out
there and we're just trying to give our team an edge."
"This was definitely a must-win for us," added Allison. "You don't want to be
down 3-0. If we have another game like tonight, we can be even."
"Anything can happen with them," said Kings' center Bryan Smolinski. "They've
got three guys that can do it all. Both Jason and Deads are physical guys.
They're going to get it. And plus they can play with the puck."
"We're reading off each other pretty well right now," Deadmarsh explained. "My
job is pretty simple. I just try to get the puck to those guys."
"[Allison and Palffy] are just unbelievable," Kings' forward Ian Laperriere
said. "Jason Allison was the most physical player on the ice, and Ziggy is a
magician out there, he doesn't know how good he is. He does things and I say,
'Wow, that was great,' and he just looks at me like, 'What's the big deal?"'
The Avs certainly stood up and took notice.
"We have to buckle down and really play better against that line," said Avs'
superstar center Joe Sakic. "We definitely have to be a lot better on that
line. They're big guys and they're strong on the puck. Ziggy, if you give him
open ice, he's going to do what he did. They were the best line and hopefully
on our side we're going to be better.
"What makes Ziggy so difficult is Adam and Allison are so strong down low, you
have to contend with them and that opens a lot of room for Ziggy to operate,"
said Avs' defenseman Adam Foote.
"Allison wants to beat one guy or Allison sets a pick or Deadmarsh sets a pick
and then one guy comes off the net then the defensemen and the forwards in
front have to watch it," Foote explained. "Once that happens, they can put a
pass through you or can come back on you. You have a one-on-one battle or a
two-on-two ball and all of a sudden they throw it blind. They are good at it.
They try to get confusion."
Indeed, Allison is a force down the middle for the Kings, exactly what they
have been missing since some guy wearing number 99 skated in the Kings' white,
silver and black jersey back from 1988-1996.
"He's creating a lot of chances for me and Deadmarsh," Palffy said. "He's so
strong, he's hard to knock off the puck. He's taking two guys with him all the
time. It was tough at first when he first got here because he's different than
Jozef Stumpel. We had to be patient and now we're making plays. He's creating a
lot of things in the front of the net."
"We both like to have the puck but what we had to learn to do was to get open
before we would get it back," Allison said.
"We gave up two pretty good players," Murray said about the trade that sent
Jozef Stumpel and Glen Murray to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Allison and
winger Mikko Eloranta. "This is the kind of power we wanted to have down the
middle. Tonight was more physical for everybody. Jason was part of that
package."
"[Allison] played extremely well, not only with the puck, but he was making big
hits," said Kings' goalie Felix Potvin. "He's a tough competitor. You can see
why he's one of the best players in the league."
The Kings were much better in their own zone and in the neutral zone, compared
to Games 1 and 2. They were stronger along the boards, and were able to slow
down the speedy Avs' attack in the neutral zone for much of the game.
The Kings also made much smarter decisions with the puck in all three zones. In
the offensive zone, they cut down on the turnovers high in the Colorado zone,
that turned into outnumbered attacks for the Avs in the first two meetings.
In the neutral zone, the Kings were supporting the puck well, and were able to
generate some speed on attack with the good puck support. And in the defensive
zone, the Kings withstood a heavy attack by the Avs, but were winning more of
the battles along the boards, in the corners, and in front of the net,
something they were not doing in the first two games.
The Kings also were more patient with the puck in their own zone, and were
better at clearing their zone.
"We just had to play better defense than we did the first two games," said
Kings' defenseman Aaron Miller.
"I thought we played well enough offensively to win the first two games,"
Allison said, "But we made a couple mistakes that cost us. We could have been
up 2-1 [in the series] or 3-0 even if we'd been a little more solid
defensively."
Another reason for the improved defense was the insertion of defenseman Andreas
Lilja and right wing Nelson Emerson into the Kings' lineup, replacing
struggling defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky and rookie right wing Jaroslav Bednar.
"We think Lilja is obviously a little stronger physically and we're wanting to
be better on the defensive side of our game," Murray explained. "We think
Visnovsky, when he's playing his game, is very effective because he moves the
puck effectively out of our zone. Lilja is better when we don't have the puck,
and Visnovsky is better when we have the puck, so there's a trade-off there."
"We just felt that Visnovsky maybe needed a break, and his performance level
wasn't where it needed to be, and we need to be better," Murray added.
The line of thought was somewhat similar in the case of Bednar.
"He was very good in the first game and then we didn't see him at all in the
second game," Murray said. "When he's playing, he's good offensively and
defensively, but it's that level of consistency, so we're going to Nelson
Emerson, a veteran who has been in this situation before, but that doesn't mean
Bednar won't be in there [on Tuesday]."
Even though the Kings were dramatically better defensively, there was still a
lot of speed and offensive chances for both teams, and the Kings are not likely
to win a series played at that pace and style, both of which favor the Avs.
"The 'compete's' been there," Kings' defenseman Mathieu Schneider said. "But
the mistakes we've made, it's like guys are getting brain cramps once or twice
a game, and you can't afford that in the playoffs, especially against a team
like Colorado, with all the world-class players they have. We have to eliminate
stupid mistakes. We're doing a lot of right things, but not enough."
Another factor in the game was that Potvin stepped up, and put in a strong
performance, by far his best of the series. He made all the easy saves, and he
made some great saves as well--ones that gave his team a real lift.
But Potvin faced some fairly extensive criticism prior to Monday's game because
he was not at his best in the first two games.
Just don't tell that to the Kings.
"Just point out one weak goal he gave up," Laperriere said. "I don't see any in
two games. Everybody is behind Felix. We're here because of him and we'll ride
with him. It's because of him we're in the playoffs; it's because of him we
were in the playoffs last year."
"You have a number one [goalie] for a reason and you stick with him," Miller
said. "You can't blame him for those unbelievable shooters. I love playing in
front of him. He's such a competitor, and he wants to play every single game
all season. He's been there, been through some good times and bad times."
After the Kings returned to Los Angeles after losing the first two games in
Denver, Potvin spent time with Kings' goaltending consultant Andy Nowicki,
working on facing shots down low and in outnumbered situations.
"That's an awesome team we're facing, there's no two ways about that. When we
analyze it, Felix was on his game, did a lot of things right. In those cases,
credit to the shooters. On another night, we're hopeful it's different."
To Potvin's credit, he's already forgotten about Games one and two.
"I think you've got to be able to put those games in the past," Potvin said.
"It's frustrating giving up nine goals in two games. But you've got to look at
the goals, too. It was important to come back fresh. The day off felt good."
Murray said that he knew his number one goalie was going to come up with a big
game.
"I saw Felix in the hall," Murray said, "I said, 'Felix, we're going to play
better in front of you,' and he said, `Well, I'm going to be better, too.' We
can be better as a team and he's part of our team. You like guys who can take
responsibility. Felix can be better. Has he been bad? No. Can he be better? For
sure."
"A great response," added Murray. "You like guys that take responsibility."
"Felix is tough to gauge any time," Murray explained. "He believes in himself.
As I've said before, our goalie consultant believes that Felix never lets in a
bad goal; there are just some unfortunate ones. That's the way we approach it.
We back him up. That's all you can do as a coach, is show the players you
believe in them, and that's what we're doing."
Even though Potvin may be back on the rise, the Kings know they still need to
tighten up defensively.
"[Potvin] played great for us, but we don't want to put him in that situation
where he's got to stop thirty [shots] a night," Deadmarsh said. "That's a tough
job for a goalie."
The bottom line in Game three for the Kings was that they committed far less
mistakes, and got strong goaltending. The two led to vastly improved play, and
Murray probably summed it all up best.
"There was a lot at stake," Murray said. "There were a lot of people talking
about a sweep. We came out energized. There were a lot of things to like in our
game tonight. "We have to do that to certainly beat these guys."
Back to the game...
Palffy opened the scoring on the first shot of the game, wristing the puck past
Roy from the low slot with a nice move just nineteen seconds into the game.
Avs' fourth-line left wing Brad Larsen answered at the 6:01 mark, scoring off a
rebound in front after Avs' defenseman Adam Foote fired a shot from right point
through a sea of legs in front of Kings' goalie Felix Potvin, who never saw the
puck coming in.
But even though the Avs were able to generate offensive chance, especially in
the third period, that was all anyone would hear from the Avs, at least on the
score sheet.
Allison scored to start the second period 0:43 on a rebound of a shot in the
slot by Palffy. Allison beat Avs' goalie Patrick Roy with a wrist from the goal
line, along the left side of the Colorado net.
The Kings got another goal when Palffy scored at the 8:29 mark from the low
slot, taking a centering pass from Allison, who was behind the Colorado net.
The Avs poured on the pressure in the third period, outshooting the Kings,
15-1. But the Kings were solid defensively, and did not give up a lot of
high-quality scoring chances.
"If you look at the shots, they weren't of massive quality," Smolinski said
about the third period. "Any time a team is down two goals, they are going to
press and do what they can to get the puck in the net."
The Avs wound up outshooting the Kings, 31-18 in the game, but the Kings outhit
the Avs by a wide margin, 51-38.
For the Avs, they came out a bit flat, and never really got to the top of their
game.
"We should come out desperate in every game in the playoffs and we didn't do
that tonight," Foote said. "It seemed like we came out hesitant and waited to
see what would happen and we were out of sync and got behind the eight-ball."
"On our end, were playing a little hesitant," Foote added about his team's
defensive play. "We're guessing a little bit. I wouldn't say they had us on the
run but we're either going or we're not going and we're getting caught in
between."
"They played well," Roy said. "They did a lot of good things. It's up to us to
adjust. They cycle well down low. They generate most of their goals from their
offense with the good play around the net. If we want to win, we have to
adjust."
"We have to get in there more," Sakic said. "They did a lot of stuff in the
neutral zone and we didn't get it in deep enough. It wasn't there. We knew this
was going to be a tough series. They came out and played desperate. We'll have
to come back [on Tuesday] and get it back."
The Kings' physical play also helped them shut down Sakic and Forsberg, who
were limited to just one shot on goal each.
"We expected it to be more physical here," said Sakic. "We knew there wasn't
going to be as much room. We have to forget about this game. The good thing is
we get to go back at it [on Tuesday]. We knew it wasn't going to be an easy
series. These are two pretty evenly matched teams."
Much of the physical play by the Kings was aimed squarely at Forsberg, mostly
by Kings' defensemen Mattias Norstrom and Philippe Boucher, who pounded
Forsberg at every opportunity.
"We played physical all year but in the playoffs that increases," Boucher said.
"That's the way Forsberg wants to play, he wants to hit you. He's one of the
strongest guys in the league. He's not only a skill player, he's a tough guy.
We talked a little bit out there. I got him good a couple of times and he
wanted to get me back."
"It was tough out there and I got a little frustrated," Forsberg said. "I have
an edge to my skating. It's tough when they're holding you and you can't get
away. I'm sure that was their game plan."
Despite getting pounded, Forsberg appeared to be no worse for the wear.
"Peter is showing us that physically he's one hundred percent," Hartley said.
"I felt he responded very well. We know one thing: They're going to grab him
and slash him. I guess that's the price you pay in the playoffs."
"It's touchy thing," Foote said. "Peter got grappled and he fought through it.
I don't think he got frustrated. I mean, they got away with a lot on Peter. He
just kept fighting though it, and that's a positive."
The Avs are now in a dogfight, and they know it.
"Everybody thought it would be a tough series," Roy explained. "Tonight was
just one game. The good thing about it is we play [on Tuesday]." "It's a good
thing we play again [on Tuesday], Roy said. "I have a chance to come back here
and redeem myself."
Scratches
---------
Colorado: Pascal Trepanier, Scott Parker, Brad Willsie (all healthy)
Los Angeles: Jaroslav Bednar, Ken Belanger, Steve Heinze, Lubomir Visnovsky
(all healthy)
Goalies
-------
Colorado: Patrick Roy
Los Angeles: Felix Potvin
Referees: Dennis LaRue, Don Van Massenhoven
Linesmen: Lonnie Cameron, Brad Lazarowich
First Period
------------
The Kings got off to a very fast start...
1. LOS ANGELES. Palffy 3 (Allison), 0:19
Allison and Palffy won a battle for the loose puck in the right corner of the
Colorado zone. Palffy then took the puck behind the Avs' net. With Deadmarsh
in front, tying up Foote, Palffy swooped around the left goal post, faked a
backhand at the left goal post, getting Roy to go down early. He then headed
into the slot, where he used Deadmarsh and Foote as a partial screen, and with
him leaning towards the slot, Palffy got off a hard wrist shot back to his
left, beating a surprised Roy just over his right leg pad.
Great plays by Allison and Palffy resulted in a goal for the Kings. First,
Allison beat Sakic and Colorado defenseman Greg deVries to the loose puck, and
then got the puck to Palffy, who did the rest.
"We came out hard," Palffy said. "We always talk about how important the first
five minutes are and we needed to score a goal early,"
"[Palffy] showed a lot of great patience on the first goal," Roy said. "I
thought he was going to shoot on his backhand and I was down. Then he took a
pretty good shot. Deadmarsh made a great pick on Adam [Foote].
At the 3:17 mark, Roy went behind his own net to play the puck, but it took a
weird bounce of the glass, and wound up in front of the net, where Kings'
winger Cliff Ronning and Avs' defenseman Rob Blake were. With the net empty,
Blake knocked down Ronning, even though Ronning never touched the puck,
preventing a scoring chance. No penalty was called, even though it was an
obvious interference penalty on Blake.
Then the Avs came right back...
2. COLORADO. Larsen 1 (Foote, Dan Hinote), 6:01
Hinote won a face-off in the right circle cleanly back to Foote at right point.
He fired a low shot through a sea of legs in front of the Kings' net. Potvin
somehow made the save, but he never saw the shot come in. The puck rebounded
into the slot, where Larsen took a whack at it while falling down, and beat
Potvin low, just inside the right goal post.
"We wanted to come out hard, and then we made a mistake that tied the score
1-1," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "That second goal was even more important,
but they're such a great team and they're never out of the game."
Potvin was not only screened, but Hinote made contact with Potvin, and could
have been called for goalie interference.
Second Period
-------------
The Kings started the second period just like they started the first...
3. LOS ANGELES. Allison 2 (Palffy), 0:43
Deadmarsh kept the puck in the Colorado zone at left point, and dumped it into
the left corner. Allison got to it, and backhanded it around the right corner
boards to Palffy. He spun away from Sakic in the right corner, and moved behind
the net, where he dropped the puck to Allison. Palffy circled back to the left
inner hash mark, where Allison found him with a pass. Wide open, Palffy got
off a low wrist shot that was stopped by Roy, but the rebound went to Allison,
who was off to the left of the crease. He got off a quick wrist shot into the
wide open left side of the net before Roy could dive back to his right.
Palffy was amazing on this shift. He used a quick move to spin away from
Sakic, which started the trouble for the Avs. Then, he used Sakic as a screen
when he got off his shot, and that prevented Roy from controlling the rebound.
"The second shot was a screen shot by Palffy," Roy explained. "I made the save
and Allison put it in from a sharp angle."
4. LOS ANGELES. Palffy 4 (Allison, Deadmarsh), 8:29
Deadmarsh held the puck in the Avs' zone at left point, and threw the puck into
the left corner, and behind the net. Allison was there and gathered in the
puck. Palffy came in from right wing, and faked a move behind the net before
jumping back out into the slot. Allison backhanded a soft pass into the low
slot where Palffy fired a low wrist shot off the pass, beating Roy through the
five-hole.
Another great play by Palffy gave the Kings a two-goal lead. The little fake
to the back of the net, and then the quick jump back into the low slot threw
the Avs' defense entirely out of whack.
To make matters worse for the Avs, Blake was cruising along the left wing
boards, well out of position. That left Foote all alone to cover Allison and
Palffy...he wound up doing neither.
"I wasn't happy with the third goal, but I'm never happy with a goal," Roy
said. "[The Allison] line is playing well. They are big players, they are smart
and are making good plays."
While the first period was mostly characterized by wide open play, the Kings
tightened up in the second period. They clamped down in the neutral zone,
slowing down the speedy Avs' attack, and they played better in their own zone.
And when the second period smoke had cleared, the Kings had limited the Avs to
just five shots on goal in the period.
Third Period
------------
No scoring...the Avs poured fifteen shots on Potvin, but not a whole lot from
dangerous areas.
Near the 13:00 mark, Eloranta got behind the Avs' defense, but was pulled down
by Foote--clearly a penalty, but none was called.
Shots on Goal
-------------
Colorado: 11 5 15 -- 31
Los Angeles: 8 9 1 -- 18
Power Play Conversions
----------------------
Colorado: 0/3; Los Angeles: 0/0
Zone Time
---------
Colorado: 8:36 7:45 6:05 -- 22:26
Los Angeles: 7:00 7:10 8:43 -- 22:53
Neutral: 4:24 5:05 5:12 -- 14:41
Three Stars (official)
----------------------
#3 - Miller; #2 - Palffy; #1 - Allison
Gann's Three Stars
------------------
#3 - Potvin; #2 - Miller; #1 - Allison/Palffy (tie)
About the officiating...LaRue and Van Massenhoven did a very poor job, not only
in calling the game, but managing it, too.
In the first and second periods, they called virtually nothing. Both teams were
getting away with lots of clutching and grabbing, with numerous, obvious
interference calls on both teams being ignored.
But in the third period, they tried to call the game much tighter, only to then
ignore the blatant pulling down of Eloranta by Foote on a clear-cut scoring
chance.
Changing their tune in this game, the players started to get frustrated, and it
boiled over at the end of the game, when Kings' left wing Kelly Buchberger
dropped the gloves with Hinote. Other players were involved in scrums as well.
The power plays were a point of contention for Murray, who was upset that the
Kings did not have a single power-play opportunity in the game.
And given the kinds of calls that were missed or ignored that went against the
Kings, one could make a case for the referees giving an elite team like the Avs
more leeway than the Kings get.
In fact, one look at the numbers above shows that the Kings did not get a
single second with the man advantage.
"We've got a good power play and I mentioned to the referees that I'd like for
us to show it to them," Murray lamented. "I'm not going to comment on it.
[Kings' Senior Vice President and General manager] Dave Taylor and [Kings'
President] Tim Leiweke can talk about it and there's quite a bit to talk about.
You watched the game."
Next Game: On Tuesday, the Kings and Avs go right back at it in Game Four at
Staples Center. Game time: 7:00 PM PDT. Televised in the Los Angeles area
beginning at 6:30 PM with the "Break the Ice" pre-game show.
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