Kings Three Unanswered Goals Gives Overtime Win

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Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Anze Kopitar scored on the power play 7:28 into overtime to give the Kings a 3-2 win over the Canucks in Game 2 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series at GM Place.

Vancouver captured the series opener in OT, 3-2, but a too many men on the ice penalty 6:14 into the extra session helped the Kings tie the set heading into Monday’s Game 3 in Los Angeles.

After the infraction, Drew Doughty had the puck on the left side and sent a cross-ice pass to Kopitar, whose initial shot was blocked by Ryan Kesler. Kopitar followed up with a wrister that ricocheted off the top of Roberto Luongo’s stick and into the back of the net for the game-winner.

“This win is huge. Now we have the momentum going home,” Doughty said. “If we were going back 0-2 it wouldn’t be the same.”

Fredrik Modin and Wayne Simmonds scored 35 seconds apart in the second period for Los Angeles, while Jonathan Quick stopped 24 shots in the win, the franchise’s first in the postseason since 2002.

Steve Bernier and Mikael Samuelsson had first-period goals for the Northwest Division champion Canucks, who received 29 saves from Luongo.

Bernier and Samuelsson scored 2:16 apart in the first for an early 2-0 lead. At 7:33, Bernier backhanded the puck into an empty net after Quick failed to secure a rebound on a shot by Kesler.

Samuelsson, who netted the Game 1 winner, skated across through the neutral zone and over the blue line before sending a seemingly lazy wrister on net. Quick was caught off guard and the puck somehow snuck under his right pad.

The Kings halved the deficit on a power play at 10:58 of the second, with Modin getting credit for the goal after a scrum in front of the net.

Simmonds followed just 35 seconds later, finishing a 3-on-1 off a nice feed from Kopitar.

Vancouver killed the only penalty of the third period, but couldn’t say the same about the man disadvantage in the extra session.

“It’s going to be tough winning hockey games being in the [penalty] box like that,” Luongo said. “We have to give those guys credit. They were down two goals early and stuck with it. They played a pretty good road game.”

Vancouver was the best home team in the Western Conference this year, posting a 30-8-3 regular season record at GM Place...These teams have met three times before in the postseason, with Los Angeles winning two of those series...Kesler had two assists, and Jack Johnson had two helpers for the Kings...LA went 2-for-6 on the power play, while Vancouver capitalized on one of its three chances with the man advantage.