Canucks Overcome Dismal Penalty Kill, Even Series

When the Los Angeles Kings scored their second power play goal of the night -- which was their sixth in a row over the past three games -- improving the unit to an unimaginable 9-for-15 in the series, you had to think the Vancouver Canucks' penalty kill was completely beyond repair. Fortunately, they found a way to kill off their final two penalties of the night, dropping the Kings' power play success rate to a far more manageable 52 percent(!) for the series.

They also managed to score four third-period goals on their way to a 6-4 win in a back-and-forth game in Los Angeles, evening the series, 2-2, as it shifts back to Vancouver on Friday night.

But about that penalty kill ... man.

Series tied, 2-2
Canucks 6, Kings 4: Recap | Box Score | Series Page

Vancouver became the first team in nearly 20 years to allow at least two power play goals in six straight playoff games (the 1990-93 New York Islanders were the most recent, according to the folks at Versus), and it doesn't seem to have an answer for anything Los Angeles is doing. The Kings had an opportunity to add to their streak when Jack Johnson found himself absolutely wide open in the circle just to the right of Roberto Luongo, but couldn't find a way to notch his first career playoff goal. Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown provided the offense with the man advantage, while the 20-year-old Doughty continued to add to his already impressive resume by tallying his sixth point in the past three games.

When Vancouver wasn't falling all over itself in shorthanded situations, it managed to outshoot the Kings by a rather sizable 37-26 margin -- including 17-8 in the third period -- for the game, and even received a pair of power play goals of its own courtesy of rearguards Sami Salo and Christian Erhoff.

In the end, however, it was the line of Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin and Mikael Samuelsson that proved to be unstoppable for the Canucks. The trio combined for six points over the final 20 minutes, while Samuelsson's goal at the 7:29 mark -- a nifty deflection from in the slot -- was his fifth of the series, moving him into a tie for the early postseason lead with his former Detroit teammate, Henrik Zetterberg. A surprising 30-goal scorer during the regular season, and already matching his previous career-best for playoff goals in just four games, Samuelsson has proven to be worth every penny of the three-year pact he signed this summer.

Luongo, who always seems to be maligned come playoff time, gave up at least three goals for the 11th time in his past 14 starts, but he did manage to make some big saves to help keep Vancouver in the game late. It might be worth pointing out that only four of the 15 goals he's allowed against the Kings have come at even strength.