Rob Scuderi’s postgame thoughts… (on drawing the overtime penalty…) SCUDERI: “I knew they were making a line change. I wish I could take total credit for the way it worked out, but I did just take a chance. I figured if no one touched the puck, we had a winger up above. I think we [...]

Anze Kopitar’s postgame thoughts… (on the comeback…) KOPITAR: “We didn’t let down. I thought, in the last part of the first period, we played really good. We really got our game going, which is the forechecks and the cycles. In the second, we got rewarded with a couple goals, and then I thought we played [...]

Anze Kopitar scored a power-play goal 7:28 into overtime to even the series. More from the locker room to come…

Shots were 30-22 Kings in regulation, and now they will do what they do best: play an overtime game. That’s seven in a row, going back to the regular season…

The Kings were outshot 13-11 in the second period but scored the period’s only two goals. The Canucks will be on the power play for the first 38 seconds of the third period.

The Kings got on the scoreboard with a power-play goal with 9:02 remaining in the second period. Jack Johnson took the puck behind the net and centered it, and after a scramble in front, Fredrik Modin skated in and knocked the puck past Luongo. Wayne Simmonds scored 35 seconds later to tie the game. Anze [...]

The Kings outshot the Canucks 8-4 but failed to score on either of their first-period power plays and allowed two goals.

The Canucks took a two-goal lead just 2:16 later. Mikael Samuelsson took a pass from Pavol Demitra and scored on a long-range wrist shot that knuckled a bit but cleanly beat Quick at the 9:49 mark.

After the Kings didn’t record a shot on goal on the game’s first power play, the Canucks scored a power-play goal 7:33 into the first period. Kyle Wellwood made a cross-ice pass to Ryan Kesler. Quick slid across to stop Kesler’s shot, but the rebound ended up in the crease and Steve Bernier knocked in [...]

To catch up on today’s news and notes, please check out my LAKings.com notebook for today… Kings notebook (April 17) A reminder that tonight’s game will be broadcast on radio on 570-AM. For more information on the series, check out the LAKings.com page dedicated to the first-round series.

After a few days, the sight is now familiar. The Kings’ locker-room door opens for media access, and Jonathan Quick is quickly engulfed by a swarm of Canadian media. For a team with 13 players who had never before experienced the NHL playoffs first-hand, it’s no doubt been an eye-opening experience to play their first [...]

Rich Clune will make his playoff debut tonight, on the Kings’ fourth line alongside Jeff Halpern and fellow playoff rookie Scott Parse. Clune’s inclusion in the lineup is always a good thing for reporters in search of a good quote, and Clune didn’t disappoint today. First, here’s what Clune had to say about his playoff [...]

The Vancouver Canucks appear to be making one lineup change tonight, with Michael Grabner replacing Matt Pettinger on the fourth line. Here’s the latest collection of stories from the Vancouver media, which appear to be getting progressively “enthusiastic” about the Canucks’ chances… Canucks’ Alex ‘the Assassin’ Edler has Kings quaking Rome may not recover in [...]

Wayne Simmonds returns to the first-line right-wing role tonight — alongside Anze Kopitar and Ryan Smyth — a role that he has filled a few different times this season. Given the Kings’ focus on forechecking in the aftermath of Game 1, it’s not surprising to see a high-energy player such as Simmonds put in a [...]

Justin Williams stayed on the ice, long after the morning skate, with the rest of the scratched players and backup goalie Erik Ersberg. Earlier, as the skate wound down, Williams had a lengthy on-ice conversation with Terry Murray near center ice. Afterward, Williams politely declined to comment to reporters about being removed from lineup tonight. [...]

Here’s what Terry Murray said, after today’s skate, about his lineup changes for Game 2 tonight… MURRAY: “I feel the reasoning applies to Jones and Justin Williams. I need them to have a bigger bite in the game. Both players are veteran guys. We added players such as Williams and Jones to be important players [...]

The Kings will alter their lineup somewhat significantly tonight, with Rich Clune, Scott Parse and Peter Harrold coming in, in place of Justin Williams, Raitis Ivanans and Randy Jones. There are apparently no injuries, and all of the changes are coach’s decisions. The Kings are expected to skate as follows: Smyth-Kopitar-Simmonds Frolov-Stoll-Brown Richardson-Handzus-Modin Parse-Halpern-Clune Scuderi-Doughty [...]

How important is tomorrow night’s Game 2? In last season’s playoffs, teams that started a series by winning Games 1 and 2 at home ended up winning the series 7 out of 9 times. The exceptions were Washington, which won the first two games of a second-round series against Pittsburgh but lost, and Detroit, which [...]

The numbers basically speak for the themselves. The Canucks’ first-line players combined for four points — each Sedin had two — while the Kings’ first-line players had only one point, when Anze Kopitar got the second assist on Jarret Stoll’s first-period goal. Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams combined for seven shots on goal and, [...]

The Manchester Monarchs opened the AHL playoffs with a 2-1 road victory over Portland in Game 1 of their first-round series. The Monarchs trailed 1-0 after a first-period goal but got third-period goals from John Zeiler (assist to Gabe Gauthier) and Bud Holloway (on the power play, assists to Corey Elkins and Justin Azevedo). Jonathan [...]