The winners of the Presidents' Trophy will be exiting the playoffs in the first round unless they can pull off an absolute miracle. The Los Angeles Kings now have a 3-0 series lead on the Vancouver Canucks after they pulled off a 1-0 win in Game 3 on Sunday night. Jonathan Quick was spectacular for the Kings, making 41 saves in a shutout, while Cory Schneider was partially at fault for the game-winning goal on the other end.
Kings Vs. Canucks Final Score, NHL Playoffs 2012 Game 3: LA Puts Vancouver In 3-0 Hole
Dustin Brown scored the winning goal, though he didn't have a ton of work to do on the play. Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams did the creating, while Schneider gave up a big rebound that fell to Brown for a simple finish.
Samuel Pahlsson made a good hit on Brown during the sequence, but along with all of his teammates, he forgot about Brown after making that check. That left him all alone with no one anywhere near him when he scored the winner.
The first period was completely uneventful, but the pace finally picked up early in the second period when Brown laid a massive clean hit on Henrik Sedin. Even though Brown didn’t commit a penalty, he delivered a hard hit to Vancouver’s star player, which caused the game to come alive. What resulted was some other big hits, fights, penalties and dives, but no goals until Brown scored in the third.
Vancouver out-shot LA in every period and created plenty of good scoring opportunities, but Quick was flawless in net. He’s been the best player in this series and looks like he could be this season’s version of the red-hot goalie that carries his team through the playoffs. The Kings were not terrific on Sunday, but they didn’t have to be with Quick in net.
For more on the Canucks, visit Nucks Misconduct. For updates on the Kings, check out Jewels From the Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles.
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