LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Kings regained control of their Western Conference semifinal against the San Jose Sharks with a convincing 3-0 Game Five victory on Thursday to move one win away from claiming a series triumph.
The defending Stanley Cup champions maintained the series theme of home-ice domination to seize a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven set before the teams return to San Jose for Game Six tomorrow.
After a goalless first period, Anze Kopitar opened the scoring for the Kings in the final few minutes of the second as he pounced on the rebound of a Kyle Clifford long-range shot to notch his second tally of the playoffs, first in this series.
Stirred by a fanatical home support, the Kings refused to relinquish the advantage and doubled their lead early in the third when Slava Voynov connected from distance just 53 seconds into the final period.
Jeff Carter capped a comprehensive performance for the hosts when he steered the puck into an empty net to complete the scoring.
“I think a good start (was the key to the win),” Kopitar said. “We can all agree that it was probably our best effort in the playoffs so far. We needed it and we came up big in this one.”
DETROIT WINGS 2, BLACKHAWKS 0: Jakub Kindl scored on a power play in the second period, Daniel Cleary had an empty-net goal and Jimmy Howard made 27 saves to help the Detroit Red Wings hold on for a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night, putting the NHL’s best team during the regular season on the brink of elimination.
After losing Game 1, the seventh-seeded Red Wings have surged into control of the second round series by handing Chicago its first three-game losing streak of the year.
Game 5 is Saturday night in Chicago.
The Blackhawks had a power play with 4:45 left in the game when Kindl was called for hooking, but they couldn’t tie the game.
RANGERS 4, BRUINS 3 OT: Chris Kreider steered in a pass from Rick Nash 7:03 into overtime, and the New York Rangers stayed alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night. New York, which erased 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the critical Game 4 matchup in the Eastern Conference semifinals, still trails the series 3-1.
The Rangers will need to win again today in Boston to force a Game 6 back in Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers, who were outshot 40-32, won a faceoff deep in their zone, and Nash rushed the puck up ice. He stopped above the right circle and fed a hard pass in front that Kreider skated into and tipped past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask for his first goal of the playoffs.
