The View From San Jose

CSNBAYAREA.COM

Kevin Kurz: Rewind: Kings better, but not good enough to beat Sharks

The Sharks outshot Los Angeles 23-8 in the third, nearly winning in regulation on a late power play.

Logan Couture said the Sharks saw the Kings team they figured they would see to when this series began, rather than the club that allowed 13 goals in the first two games.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

David Pollak: San Jose Sharks go up 3-0 on Los Angeles Kings on Patrick Marleau’s goal in overtime

This game was as tight as the others were lopsided with neither team taking more than a one-goal lead at any time. The Sharks got their regulation goals from Brent Burns and rookies Matt Nieto and Tomas Hertl while the Kings offense came from Jarret Stoll, Marian Gaborik and Jeff Carter.

The first two games of the series got the NHL’s attention — not because the Sharks won both, but because they beat the NHL’s stingiest regular-season team by a combined score of 13-5. With the win, the Sharks became the only Western Conference team to jump out to a 3-0 lead as the three other series are all at 2-1.

Mark Purdy: Sharks prevail again as playoff scene switches to L.A.

For the first six minutes of overtime with the score tied at 3-3, the Kings completely dominated the action by taking five shots to the Sharks’ none and keeping the puck almost exclusively in the L.A. offensive zone.

Then, at long last, the Sharks had a faceoff at the other end of the ice. A few seconds later, Patrick Marleau scored the game-winner.

NHL.COM

Cory Masisak: Sharks take 3-0 series lead on Marleau’s OT goal

Marleau’s shot 6:20 into overtime went off the stick of Kings defenseman Slava Voynov and past an unsuspecting Jonathan Quick, and the Sharks claimed a 4-3 victory and a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

“We need to settle our team down, and those are three guys I trust a lot,” McLellan said. “In that situation, we needed that one shift where we could settle everything down and relax a little bit, play the way we’re supposed to. They got the goal before we settled.”

Curtis Zupke: Kings vow they won’t go quietly

Kings center Mike Richards played on one of the three teams in NHL history to have come back from 3-0 series deficits, when he accomplished the feat with the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins. But he didn’t have much answer as to what it will take to win one game against San Jose, which proved it can score greasy goals too, and come out on top even when the Kings slow the game down.

“Play each game and don’t worry about what’s ahead of you,” Richards said. “We just have to have a mindset of winning the next game and go from there.”

Corey Masisak: Sharks-Kings series casts spotlight on California kids

Nieto is a Southern California kid finding his way in the NHL with its Northern California franchise. Kings defenseman Alec Martinez actually spent two years living in Northern California and a year playing in the Junior Sharks youth program.

The two players are part of a growing number in the NHL who were trained as youth in California. There are likely to be a few more California kids drafted in June, including top-rated North American goaltender Thatcher Demko.

ESPN.COM

Pierre LeBrun: Kings can’t keep up with Sharks

The victory was important in so many ways, including finally winning here at Staples Center, where the Kings have not lost in regulation to the Sharks since November 2011, a streak that includes in the playoffs.

“It’s been a while. It feels good,” Sharks forward Joe Pavelski said. “It’s another step in this series, they’ll be coming at us again next game.

SB Nation – FEAR THE FIN

The Neutral: Tomas Hertl returns to the scene of the crime, puts the Sharks up 3-0 in series

This wasn’t nearly as dominant a performance as the Sharks’ first two victories, and no one should have expected it to be. With the luxury of last change, Darryl Sutter juggled his lines into more palatable combinations and the Kings played not only like a team on the ropes, but like the team everyone anticipated they would be coming into the series. They were suffocating on the forecheck and hemmed the Sharks in their zone for lengthy stretches of the first period but to San Jose’s credit they didn’t give up a whole lot in terms of quality chances and scored the lone goal of the opening frame, a Brent Burns change-up on the power play.