The Los Angeles Kings have entered the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hoping to make a statement and through the first two games of their first round series against the Vancouver Canucks, they are doing so in spades. On Friday night, they followed up their Wednesday night upset of the Canucks with an even more impressive showing, going up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series with a 4-2 victory.
With just nine seconds left in the first period, Dustin Brown scored a shorthanded goal to open the scoring and give the Kings the early lead.
After the first intermission, Jannik Hansen tied things up right away, scoring a goal just 17 seconds into the second period. Precisely five minutes later, Brown put Los Angeles ahead again with his second shorthanded goal of the game, becoming the first Kings player to ever score two shorthanded goals in a playoff game. The Kings would not give up the lead for the rest of the game.
Tempers would begin to flare in earnest in the third period. Brown would get credit for his third goal of the night on a power play at 8:30 in the third period, although he was clearly not the Kings player who knocked in the puck, as you can see in the video below.
A huge brawl broke out by the Los Angeles net, resulting in a Los Angeles power play. Although the Kings would come up empty during the power play itself, they extended their lead shortly afterward. At 14:51 in the third period, the Kings would add the exclamation point as Trevor Lewis found the net.
The Canucks would add one last goal at 16:22 on a shot from Samuel Pahlsson, but Vancouver would get no closer.
Jonathan Quick was exceptional in the net, stopping 46 of 48 Vancouver shots on goal.
For more on the Los Angeles Kings, make sure you check out Jewels From The Crown. For the Canucks side of things, make sure you head over to Nucks Misconduct.
