The highlight package between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks on Thursday night was something you usually see at the end of a long, hard-fought playoff series with an overlay of sweeping music.
There was often brilliant goaltending, plenty of hard-hitting, own goals, goal-saving stands and savvy playmaking from unlikely sources. All that, and momentum changes worthy of a classic.
Cut, print and move on.
Only the Kings and Sharks will be moving on ... to Game 2.
Game 1 between the longtime rivals managed to meet the hype Thursday night, as San Jose twice rallied from deficits, scoring the final two goals to defeat the Kings, 4-3, in the opener of the Western Conference quarterfinals at Staples Center.
“We just weren’t sharp,” Kings wing Dustin Brown said.
The game-winner came from Sharks captain Joe Pavelski only 17 seconds into the third period as he beat Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on a wraparound. It was Pavelski’s second goal of the game.
That’s the simple description.
The Kings iced the puck in the opening seconds of the third period to set up the faceoff back in their own zone. Pavelski then won the draw cleanly against Kings center Anze Kopitar in the right circle, setting the stage for his game-winner.
Game 2 is set for Saturday night at Staples Center. Perhaps it will settle down a bit after a roller-coasterish start to the series.
This was first playoff game between the Kings and Sharks since they met in the opening round in 2014, in which the Kings rallied from a 3-0 series deficit and went on to win the Stanley Cup for the second time.
One of the big themes heading into the playoffs was how the Kings would handle the Sharks’ third-ranked power play.
But Kings Coach Darryl Sutter earlier downplayed the regular season.
“I think, the playoffs, everybody resets,” Sutter said after Thursday’s morning skate. “If you’d look at past playoffs, for example, I know when we played New Jersey in the finals (in 2012), they were coming off a regular season where they had, I believe, the best penalty killing in the history in the National Hockey League, and in playoffs they had the worst.
“So it just tells you about the changes, and what happens a lot in playoffs, it just becomes more magnified.”