Kings Blank Panthers 3-0

The Los Angeles Kings are starting to look like their old selves again. They stole two points in Minnesota, winning in a shootout, after turning in a less than ideal performance; dropped the game in Winnipeg; couldn’t find their offense (or any semblance of a team performance, capped off perfectly by Jonathan Quick’s infamous gaffe) versus the Rangers in their home opener; barely held on for a 4-3 win over Ottawa (nearly blowing a 3-0 lead); followed by scraping out a 2-1 shootout victory over the Canes on Friday.

In the Sunday matinee performance, Kings showed off their elite puck possession skills and were able to withstand pressure exerted by Florida’s gifted, young offense.

Extraskater.com’s chart shows that overall, Kings fairly well dominated Corsi (goals + saves + missed shots + blocks). The Fenwick (goals + saves + missed shots, but no blocks) was a little closer, however, Kings still came out on top with a fairly decent margin.

Panthers Stat Kings

0 Goals 3

32 Corsi 54

27 Fenwick 39

20 Shots 29

5v5 (54.0 min played)

0 Goals 3

28 Corsi 51

24 Fenwick 36

17 Shots 27

5v5 close (28.9 min played)

0 Goals 2

18 Corsi 31

15 Fenwick 24

10 Shots 18

5v5 tied (22.8 min played)

0 Goals 1

16 Corsi 24

13 Fenwick 17

9 Shots 13

From looking at this chart above, the Corsi and Fenwick were extremely close and nearly identical while the score was still tied until Daniel Carcillo recorded his first goal as King almost nine minutes into the second period. That goal seemed to breathe life into the Kings as they applied even stronger pressure and were rewarded just about seven minutes later when Justin Williams forced a turnover inside the Panthers’ zone before finishing off a give-and-go from Kopitar for his 500th career point. From there on out, the Kings’ extended their Corsi and ran away with the game from a puck possession stand point.

It was arguably their best game of this still young season as they limited offensive chances against and held the Panthers to just 20 shots on goal.

The table above shows the away team’s (in this case, the Kings’) total scoring chances by period. Through four minutes of PK time, the Kings surrendered only one scoring chance. In the first period, they had a total of 5 chances and only gave up 3. The third period scoring chances can be attributed to score effects when the Kings were already up 2-0. (In other words, the Panthers would be pressing harder and the Kings’ defense would be

Ben Scrivens, in his first start as a King, wasn’t extensively tested but he made accurate reads and was solid when he needed to be. His last shutout actually came against Florida and his luck proved to hold up as he managed to keep the Panthers off the board through the entire 60 minutes.

Los Angeles will host the Panthers on Saturday, March 22 at 1pm.