Down the Frozen River

Tag: 1989 Stanley Cup Playoffs

  • Look To The Rafters: Calgary Flames (Part II)

    In the early days of DTFR, we made an educated guess as to who each team might honor in the future regarding retired jersey numbers. Since then, the Vegas Golden Knights came into existence and more than a few jersey numbers went out of circulation across the league. 

    It’s time for an update and a look at who the Calgary Flames might honor by hanging their name and number from the rafters of Scotiabank Saddledome (but in actuality the new Calgary arena that’s being built) someday.

    Calgary Flames Current Retired Numbers

    9 Lanny McDonald

    12 Jarome Iginla

    30 Mike Vernon

    “Forever a Flame”

    2 Al MacInnis

    25 Joe Nieuwendyk

    Did Anything Change In The Last Five Years?

    Yes! Jarome Iginla had his No. 12 retired on March 2, 2019, becoming just the third retired jersey number in Flames franchise history. Those “Forever a Flame” members are just honored players for their contributions to Calgary while playing for the Flames, but their jersey numbers remain in circulation.

    Possible Numbers to Retire Someday

    13 Johnny Gaudreau

    Gaudreau put up 99 points in 82 games in a breakout season last season after reaching at least 60 points in his first four full NHL seasons from 2014-15 through 2017-18. Technically that means he’s had at least 60 points in his first five full seasons and, despite finishing the pandemic shortened 2019-20 regular season with 58 points in 70 games played, Gaudreau was on pace for about 68 points this season.

    While he officially missed out on yet another 60-point season, Gaudreau is a consistent player for the Flames. Sure, 58 points is a bit of a steep drop off from 99 points, but Calgary went through a coaching change this season and unrelated turmoil in trying to find what worked so well last season, but just wasn’t apparent in their game under Geoff Ward in 2019-20.

    What’s perhaps more telling about the Flames from last season to this season is that Gaudreau went from a healthy plus-18 rating in 2018-19, to a minus-10 rating in 2019-20. That’s… not ideal.

    As long as he bounces back to his consistent form or even if all he does is put up 50-points per season in Calgary, then Gaudreau has a good chance of seeing his number in the rafters of the Flames’ new arena that’s currently on track to replace Scotiabank Saddledome.

    The question is, will he be around long enough to qualify for it though?

    Gaudreau has already played in parts of seven NHL seasons so far and, while that’s certainly enough for some teams, it seems the Flames are set on limiting retired jersey numbers for players that average about 12 seasons in a Calgary sweater.

    In five years, who knows what could happen, but hopefully for fans of Gaudreau in Calgary, it’ll mean that he’s getting through his 12th season and then some as a Flame.

    With 151 goals and 294 assists (445 points) in 464 career games (all with the Flames) so far, Gaudreau’s quickly approaching that “at least 600” benchmark for a player to not just have their number honored in Calgary, but rather set aside as a whole and raised to the rafters– never to be worn again.

    14 Theoren Fleury

    In order to be considered “royalty” in Calgary franchise history, it seems that a player must have had at least 600 points in a Flames sweater. Both Al MacInnis and Joe Nieuwendyk had over 600 points in their time with the Flames (MacInnis had 822 points in 13 seasons with Calgary, while Nieuwendyk had 616 points with the Flames in nine seasons).

    Luckily for Fleury, he’s above the “Forever a Flame” club with 830 career points in Calgary from the 1988-89 season through part of the 1998-99 season.

    Retiring Fleury’s No. 14 would rightfully honor a story of redemption and continued success on the path of forgiveness for all involved similar to how one could argue for the Boston Bruins to honor Derek Sanderson in some manner.

    Fleury won the Cup with the Flames in 1989, and had two seasons with at least 100 points in Calgary– including one season with a career-high 51 goals in 1990-91.

    A consistent scorer in his time as a Flame, one word best describes Fleury’s stats in Calgary– dominant.

    After 15 NHL seasons from 1988-89 through 2002-03, Fleury amassed 455-633–1,088 totals in 1,084 games, then stepped away from the NHL to deal with substance abuse and released an autobiography, titled Playing With Fire, in 2009.

    23 Sean Monahan

    Like Gaudreau, Monahan defines an era for Calgary hockey– the current era of the Flames franchise. He had a respectable 34 points in 75 games in his rookie season in 2013-14, then had 60 or more points in three out of four seasons from 2014-15 through 2017-18.

    Since then, Monahan had career-highs in goals with 34 and assists with 48 last season for a career-high 82 points in 78 games.

    This season, he had 22 goals and 26 assists (48 points) in 70 games and was on pace for 56 points. Not bad, but definitely back to his usual production rates.

    That said, like Gaudreau, Monahan has been a part of the Flames in six full seasons and has amassed 194 goals and 217 assists (411 points) in that span. With 541 NHL games under his belt– all with Calgary, Monahan could leverage more points and another half-dozen seasons as a Flame as more than enough to earn a banner alongside Lanny McDonald, Jarome Iginla and Mike Vernon.

    34 Miikka Kiprusoff 

    Calgary retired Vernon’s No. 30 despite Vernon playing in the tumultuous 1980s NHL. Seriously.

    Vernon had 262 wins in a Flames sweater in 527 games played over 13 seasons in Calgary from the 1982-83 season through 1993-94. He had a 3.27 goals against average and an .883 save percentage in that span, as well as 13 shutouts, but he went on to win the Cup in 1989, which has been Calgary’s only Stanley Cup ring so far, so there’s that.

    Unlike Kiprusoff, Vernon did not win the Vezina Trophy, nor did he win the William M. Jennings Trophy (well, not with the Flames, at least– Vernon won it in 1995-96 as a member of the Detroit Red Wings).

    Kiprusoff, on the other hand, spent nine seasons with the Flames from 2003-04 through 2012-13 and amassed 305 wins in 576 games played (386 starts). In his Calgary playing days, Kiprusoff had a 2.46 GAA, a .913 SV% and 41 shutouts. He also took home the Vezina Trophy and William M. Jennings Trophy in the 2005-06 season.

    Sure, Vernon won a Cup and made two appearances in the Final with the Flames in 1986 and 1989, but even though Kiprusoff didn’t win a Cup, he at least reached the Final with Calgary in 2004– losing in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

    Anyway, the point is simple, if Vernon is your standard for retiring a goalie’s jersey number in Calgary, then at least 300 wins and any hardware becomes the benchmark for future considerations, hence Kirpusoff’s appearance on this list.

    Final Thoughts

    The Flames don’t seem to have any striking “once in a generation” talent since Iginla was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2013, but they do have the kind of committed and consistent players in Gaudreau and Monahan to consider honoring down the line as long as their careers live to see it.

    If Calgary makes any bold decisions to trade one or both of them, then it’s not likely that either will see anything more than some “Forever a Flame” recognition.

    As a whole, the Flames don’t have many strong candidates in their history that scream “retire this number or else”. 

    Iginla is the only player in franchise history with more than 1,000 points with the team and the next closest guy is the most deserving of having his number retired, but carried off ice repercussions that might be holding Calgary back from sending Fleury’s No. 14 to the rafters without proper discussion surrounding hockey culture as a whole and how it failed a player and led to long-lasting effects on his life and those around him.

  • Fleury stands on his head, but not in Cirque, for 4-2 Vegas win

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    The house always wins in Vegas and that was once again apparent as the Vegas Golden Knights took down the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2, on Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena.

    The Golden Knights lead the 2018 Western Conference Final, 2-1, thanks to the efforts of Jonathan Marchessault, James Neal and their superstar since the 2017 Expansion Draft, Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 3.

    For the first time in about nine weeks, the Jets have lost back-to-back games (dating back to a string of three losses in mid-March during the regular season).

    Fleury made 33 saves on 35 shots against for a .943 save percentage in the win, while Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 shots out of 29 shots faced for an .897 SV% in 58:58 time on ice in the loss.

    Quick goals were a theme Wednesday night as Jonathan Marchessault (7) kicked things off with a beautiful backhand goal, beating Hellebuyck with just a tap-in after the Jets netminder overcommitted 35 seconds into the action.

    Brayden McNabb (2) had the only assist on the goal and the Golden Knights led, 1-0.

    After taking a wild elbow to the face from a Winnipeg defender, James Neal left the ice for a short period of time in the first period. Neal would return by the end of the opening frame and proved to be a key component in Game 3 in the second period.

    Erik Haula served a minor penalty for tripping about midway through the first period and the Jets did not convert on the ensuing power play.

    Vegas was unable to convert on two man advantage opportunities of their own late in the third (Josh Morrissey for holding at 14:50 and Mathieu Perreault for tripping at 19:35 of the first period, respectively).

    After one period of play, the Golden Knights led, 1-0, on the scoreboard and 10-3 in shots on goal. Vegas also led in takeaways (6-0), giveaways (5-1) and faceoff win percentage (71-29), while Winnipeg led in blocked shots (8-5) and hits (18-9). Both teams had yet to convert on the power play as the Jets were 0/1 and the Golden Knights were 0/2 after the first period.

    Winnipeg opened scoring in the second period with a nifty deflection by Mark Scheifele (13) on a shot from Blake Wheeler at the goal line to the left of Fleury. Scheifele’s deflection beat the Vegas netminder on the short side and tied the game, 1-1, at 5:28 of the second period as the Jets looked to soar.

    Wheeler (16) had the only assist on the goal and the game did not remain tied for long.

    Not long at all, as 12 seconds after the Jets tied it, the Golden Knights untied it with a goal of their own from none other than James Neal.

    Neal (4) pocketed the puck in the twine after Hellebuyck butchered a chance to handle the puck and promptly turned it over to Vegas forward, Erik Haula. Haula quickly threw the piece of vulcanized rubber in front of the goal where Neal was awaiting and Vegas took the lead, 2-1, at 5:40 of the second period.

    Haula (4) had the only assist on the goal.

    Less than three minutes later the Golden Knights were at it again with the same basic principle— get the puck down low, toss it to the guy in front of the net in the low slot, one-time it/deflect it and score.

    So it came as no surprise when Neal collected his own rebound, then wrapped around the goal only to toss the puck to Alex Tuch (5) in the low slot for the redirection into the twine. Vegas had a two-goal lead just like that at 8:13 of the second period. Neal (5) and Nate Schmidt (4) were credited with the primary and secondary assists and the Golden Knights led, 3-1.

    About a minute later, Scheifele slashed McNabb and the home team went on the power play. Unfortunately for T-Mobile Arena goers, the Golden Knights did not score a goal on the ensuing power play.

    Moments later, Vegas defender, Luca Sbisa, was guilty of holding Perreault and was sent to the sin bin. Winnipeg did not convert on the ensuing player advantage at 14:39 of the second period.

    In the closing minutes of the second frame, a scrum resulted after the whistle had been blown on a routine cover up by Fleury. Every skater on the ice grabbed a hold of an opponent and exchanged some pleasantries while Fleury tickled Wheeler’s ear and Jets defender, Dustin Byfuglien latched on to two Golden Knights at once.

    Scheifele, Ryan Carpenter, Wheeler and Cody Eakin were all sent to the box for their respective teams with matching roughing minors at 17:26 of the second period so there was no change in strength on the ice.

    Through 40 minutes of play, Vegas held on to a 3-1 lead over Winnipeg. The Golden Knights still had advantages in shots on goal (22-19), blocked shots (14-13), takeaways (11-2), giveaways (8-4) and faceoff win percentage (51-49), while the Jets led in hits (38-24) after two periods. Neither team had scored on the power play, as Winnipeg was 0/2 and Vegas was 0/3 entering the second intermission.

    Winnipeg came out strong in the third period.

    So strong, in fact, that the Jets scored in the first 18 seconds of the period as Scheifele (14) scored his second goal of the night emulating Tuch on his goal for the Golden Knights.

    The Jets won the opening faceoff of the third period and worked the puck down low in the attacking zone, where Kyle Connor then found Scheifele sneaking behind Vegas’s defense in open ice for a one-timer past Fleury as the Golden Knights goalie had to stretch across the crease.

    Connor (7) and Wheeler (17) had the assists on the goal and Winnipeg pulled to within one, as the Golden Knights two-goal lead diminished to a 3-2 lead with plenty of time left in regulation.

    Scheifele’s second goal of the night set an NHL record for most road goals in a postseason (11), previously held by Sidney Crosby (with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009) and Joe Mullen (with the Calgary Flames in 1989), who each had 10 road goals in their respective postseason runs.

    Coincidentally, both the 2009 Penguins and 1989 Flames won the Stanley Cup.

    The Jets dominated the pace of play throughout the third period, as Fleury was auditioning for a role in Cirque du Soleil by seemingly standing on his head making save-after-save for Vegas.

    Fleury’s play culminated in a split across the crease followed by a desperation dive to deny Winnipeg of two quality scoring chances that for sure would have tied the game otherwise if it were not for Fleury’s superhuman ability.

    After Hellebuyck covered the puck for a faceoff, Paul Maurice called a timeout to gather his team, draw up a plan and rally a way to forcing the issue.

    Instead, Maruice’s Jets were no match for Gerard Gallant’s Golden Knights as the Winnipeg netminder was finally able to vacate the net with about a minute left in regulation.

    Despite two blown chances at the empty net with about 25 seconds left in Game 3, Marchessault (8) was the one to get the job done on a wraparound with 2.7 seconds left in the game.

    The Golden Knights forward beat out the icing call, raced to the puck and put it away for a 4-2 victory in Game 3 and a 2-1 series lead as McNabb (3) and Fleury (1) picked up the assists. Yes, Fleury fittingly got an assist on the empty net goal.

    At the final horn, Adam Lowry mixed things up a bit with Ryan Reaves and the rest of the skaters on the ice as both teams found partners in case they needed to go square dancing, but the linesmen got things under control after a shoving match and Vegas celebrated their victory.

    Entering Wednesday, Winnipeg had not lost back-to-back games this postseason, nor had they trailed in a series. Until now.

    After 60 minutes of play, the Golden Knights walked away with the 4-2 win and an advantage in faceoff win percentage (52-48). The Jets finished the night leading in shots on goal (35-30) and hits (48-41). There were no penalties called in the third period.

    Game 4 is scheduled for Friday night at T-Mobile Arena with puck drop a little after 8 p.m. ET. Viewers in the United States can tune in once again to NBCSN, while fans in Canada can catch the action on CBC, SN1 or TVAS.

  • November 12 – Day 31 – Fixing Florida

    It’s Saturday, so you know what that means: lots of hockey!

    Exactly.

    Like always, we get glued to our televisions at 7 p.m. when eight pucks are dropped (Detroit at Montréal [SN/TVAS], San Jose at Tampa Bay, the New York Islanders at Florida, Buffalo at New Jersey, Minnesota at Philadelphia, Toronto at Pittsburgh [CBC/CITY/NHLN], Washington at Carolina and St. Louis at Columbus), followed an hour later by two more (Boston at Arizona and Anaheim at Nashville). Finally, the New York Rangers visit Calgary at 10 p.m. (CBC/SN1) to act as our nightcap. All times eastern.

    Short List:

    • New York at Florida: It’s a rematch of an Eastern Conference Quarterfinal a season ago between two teams still searching for their identity.
    • Detroit at Montréal: Original Six alert.
    • Anaheim at Nashville: Another 2015-’16 Quarterfinal rematch, but this one is in the Western Conference.
    • New York at Calgary: If Josh Jooris weren’t on injured reserve, this would be his first return to the Saddledome since leaving the Flames. Guess he’ll have to wait until next year.

    In a peculiar way, I’m drawn to the Eastern rematch from a season ago. Not only have we not featured the Panthers yet this season, but I want to get to the bottom of why they are not finding the success they were projected to have.

    New York Islanders LogoFlorida_Panthers_logo_2016

     

    Probably the best explanation of the 5-7-2 Islanders is that they’re 1-2-2 in their last five game played. While the offense has been only average in comparison to the rest of the league, it has been the defense and goaltending that has been the major pitfall.

    Jaroslav Halak has started nine games so far this season to earn a 3-4-2 record on a .903 save percentage and 3.03 GAA, which rank 25th and 26th-worst in the league, respectively, among all goaltenders to play this season. While these numbers are far from good, the skaters in front of him have not been providing him much help. Even thought Johnny Boychuk, Dennis Seidenberg, Calvin de Haan and Thomas Hickey all have 32+ blocks to their credit, the Islanders have allowed 432 shots against, well over the league average.

    One of the major reasons for the high shots against totals given the great efforts by those four blueliners is New York‘s inability to avoid the power play. Even though he hasn’t played since last Saturday due to a broken right thumb, Travis Hamonic leads a club that averages 10:55 in the box (tied for 10th-most in the NHL) with 23 penalty minutes. As would be expected by the taxed special team, the Isles have been burned by opposing power plays and allowed a goal on 24.1% of opposing attempts, the worst effort in the Eastern Conference.

    Brooklyn is also home to one of the worst power plays in the league, as the Isles are successful on only 10.5% of their attempts.

    Hosting them this evening are the 6-7-1 Florida Panthers, a team that has been only average this season. Unlike tonight’s opponent, what has probably been most impressive about them has been their defense and goaltending.

    Roberto Luongo has started nine games this season to earn a 4-5-0 record on a .917 save percentage and 2.36 GAA to rank 12th and 15th-best, respectively, among goaltenders with seven or more starts to their name.

    Part of the reason he and James Reimer have been able to find their success has been the blue line playing in front of them. Even though Michael Matheson leads the club with only 16 blocks, Florida has allowed only 401 shots to reach net, six fewer than the league average.

    As stated before, these squads met up last year in the opening round of the Atlantic Division’s playoff bracket. After the clubs split the first four games, the Islanders won two double-overtime games in a row to advance to the Eastern Semifinals. It truly was an upset seeing as the Panthers were not only the Atlantic champion, but they had won the regular season series against New York 2-1-0.

    Some players to keep an eye on tonight include Florida‘s Jon Marchessault (seven goals [tied for eighth-most in the league]) and New York‘s John Tavares (11 points on five goals [both lead the team]).

    Florida is marked a -150 favorite by Vegas, and that’s a line I definitely agree with. Their offense should be more than capable of scoring on the Islanders‘ week defense.

    Hockey Birthday

    • Denis DeJordy (1938-) – This goaltender played 316 games over his 11 NHL seasons, 62.7% of which were with Chicago. He earned a 124-128-51 career record, and won the 1966-’67 Vezina trophy.
    • Mark Hunter (1962-) – This right wing was the seventh overall selection in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft by Montréal, but he spent  34.7% of his playing days in St. Louis. He hoisted the Stanley Cup once in his career, with the 1988-’89 Calgary Flames. Nowadays, he’s an assistant with the Maple Leafs.
    • Bryan Little (1987-) – The 12th overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by AtlantaWinnipeg, this right wing has appeared in 614 games with the franchise. He scored a career-best 64 points in his 2013-’14 campaign.
    • Adam Larsson (1992-) – This defenseman was the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by New Jersey. He was the Devil sent to Edmonton this off-season in the trade for Taylor Hall.

    I picked Philadelphia to beat Toronto in last night’s Game of the Day. I got embarrassed, as the Leafs won 6-3 on a four-goal third period.

    Toronto earned a 1-0 lead only 2:54 into the contest when Nazem Kadri (Star of the Game Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev) scored a wrister, but Philly pulled even 1:05 later when Wayne Simmonds (Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere) capitalized on a power play opportunity. The Flyers pulled ahead only 26 seconds after drawing even when Travis Konecny‘s (Radko Gudas and Michael Del Zotto) backhand found the back of the net. The final goal of the period wasn’t registered until only 52 seconds remained in the frame. Rielly (Mitch Marner and James van Riemsdyk) takes credit for the power play score with his first goal of the season to set the score at 2-2.

    The Flyers returned to the ice intent on imposing their will, made evident by Mark Streit getting caught for tripping Zach Hyman and earning a seat in the sin bin two minutes into the frame. Philly responded well though, as Simmonds (Sean Couturier) scored a shorthanded snapper 53 seconds later to take a 3-2 lead. It was the lone score of the second period.

    4:03 into the third period, Martin Marincin (Rielly and Kadri) scored his first goal of the season with a slap shot to pull the Leafs into a 3-3 tie. Another first goal of the season proved to be the eventual game-winner, as Hyman (Auston Matthews and Connor Carrick) scored a snap shot 4:31 later to take the lead. The Leafs didn’t look back, as they scored two insurance goals, courtesy of Leo Komarov and Marner (Rielly and Tyler Bozak), to secure the victory.

    Frederik Andersen earned the victory after saving 30-of-33 shots faced (90.9%), while Steve Mason saved 17-of-23 in the loss (73.9%).

    Toronto‘s victory sets the DtFR Game of the Day series at 19-11-3, favoring the home squads by nine points over the roadies.

  • Sharks Win 6-3, Eliminate Kings in 5 Games

    By: Nick Lanciani

    UnknownThe San Jose Sharks remained perfect against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center this year, including both the regular season and the postseason, defeating the Kings 6-3 in Game 5 and winning the best-of-7-game series 4-1.

    Martin Jones made 19 saves on 22 shots faced for an .864 SV% en route to the victory, while LA’s Jonathan Quick saved just 22 shots of the 27 he faced for an .815 SV% in the loss. Entering Friday night, Los Angeles was trailing 3-1 in a series for the 14th time in franchise history. Of the 13 prior occurrences, the Kings were only able to come back and win the series twice, once in 2014 vs. San Jose and the other time versus the Edmonton Oilers in 1989.

    Joonas Donskoi kicked off the goal scoring frenzy at 1:08 of the first period to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Logan Couture picked up his first of three assists on the night on Donskoi’s first goal of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

    At 2:45 of the period, Luke Schenn interfered with Tomas Hertl and was sent to the penalty box, giving San Jose their first power play of the night, which quickly turned into a 5-on-3 advantage 16 seconds after Schenn’s penalty, due to Dustin Brown having tripped Shark’s goaltender, Martin Jones. Despite the two-man advantage, the Sharks were unable to score on the power play.

    Chris Tierney picked up his first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal at 11:21 of the first period with some help from Brent Burns, who like Couture, also went on to have a three-assist night. Tierney’s goal made it 2-0 San Jose with lots of time left in both the first period and in the game.

    Sharks forward, Joel Ward was penalized for tripping Trevor Lewis at 16:27 of the opening frame, but San Jose’s penalty kill was able to avert a power play goal from the Kings.

    After one, it was 2-0 San Jose. The Sharks were leading in shots on goal (13-4), hits (12-10), takeaways (1-0) and blocked shots (9-3), while Los Angeles was controlling the faceoff dot (14-12). Both teams had committed four giveaways each after twenty minutes of play.

    The second period opened up to Matt Nieto making it 3-0 Sharks a little after four minutes into the period. Nieto’s first goal of the playoffs was assisted by Ward and Couture at 4:05 of the period. Shortly thereafter, Patrick Marleau was granted a penalty shot for being denied a scoring opportunity with 14:29 to go in the 2nd. Despite his moves, Jonathan Quick stood tall and denied Marleau of a penalty shot goal that would’ve given the Sharks a four-goal lead.

    Unknown-3Just as it was looking like the Sharks might finally exercise some demons from the past, Anze Kopitar tipped one by Jones at 7:44 of the 2nd for his 2nd of the series, assisted by Dwight King (1) and Drew Doughty (1) to make the Kings trail by two.

    Jeff Carter quickly followed up at 11:26 of the 2nd period with his 2nd of the postseason to cut San Jose’s lead to one. Jake Muzzin and Tyler Toffoli picked up the helpers on Carter’s goal.

    Carter’s goal meant that Los Angeles was trailing 3-2 with plenty of time left to be a threat.

    Nearly five minutes later, Kris Versteeg tied the game, 3-3, with his first goal of the playoffs, assisted by Kyle Clifford and Muzzin. The celebration was short lived, rather, nearly ruined when Trevor Lewis put San Jose on the power play at 17:26 of the second period after slashing Hertl. The Sharks did not score on the man advantage and the game went into the second intermission tied at 3.

    San Jose held a slim lead in shots on goal (23-18) and dominated blocked shots (20-8), while Los Angeles had taken control of hits (27-24), faceoff wins (29-23) and giveaways (12-10). Both teams had one takeaway after forty minutes of play and the Sharks were 0/3 on the power play, while Los Angeles was 0/1.

    There were no penalties in the third period, however there were still lots of goals.

    Donskoi continued to set the heroic tone for San Jose almost four minutes into the third period with what would be the game-winning goal. Burns and Couture picked up the assists.

    It wasn’t until 12:24 of the 3rd that the Sharks would score again when San Jose captain, Joe Pavelski beat Quick on a shot to the back of the twine. Burns and Paul Martin got the assists on Pavelski’s 5th goal of the postseason and the Sharks were now in command of the game with a two-goal lead.

    With about four minutes left in the game, Darryl Sutter signaled for Quick to vacate the Kings’ net and utilize an extra attacker, but it was ultimately to no avail. Shortly after Joe Thornton iced the puck aiming for LA’s empty net, Melker Karlsson received a pass from Marleau and put the puck at the back of the net for his the empty net goal that sealed the deal on the series. Karlsson’s first of the series gave San Jose a 6-3 lead at 19:38 of the third period.

    The Sharks defended the Kings last ditch efforts on their season and emerged victorious once again on road ice at Staples Center this (post)season.

    San Jose finished with six goals on the scored board in what was the highest scoring game of the series and recorded 28 shots on goal compared to Los Angeles’s three goals on 22 shots on goal. The Kings finished the night leading in hits (39-30), faceoff wins (41-29) and giveaways (16-11), while the Sharks led in blocked shots (29-11). Both teams finished the night unsuccessful on the power play and with one takeaway each.

    San Jose will now wait for the winner of the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators series to end and then face its winner in the Second Round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

    Los Angeles will face many tough questions this offseason after a disappointing Game 5 loss and overall disappointing postseason performance based on how they got into the playoffs in the first place. They’ll also face the decision of whether or not to resign pending unrestricted free agent, Milan Lucic, who is sure to attract some attention from several teams around the league.

    In any case, the fourth installment of San Jose vs. Los Angeles was yet another epic in the storied history of California hockey.