Ryan Jones Scores the First GoalAgain the thought kept running through my head, “Will we keep this lead?” Eventually we pulled it off winning 5-4. Everyone was on the edge of their seat till the fat lady sang.
Tonight we got off to a brilliant start 9:32 into the period, while on the power play. Ryan Jones got a pass off of Patric Hornqvist and snapped it passed LaBarbera, after a huge chance on a rebound with David Legwand. A tad bit over a minute later, J.P. Dumont faked out LaBarbera to put one pass his left side. At 12:48 into the period, Ryan Suter took a shot from the blue line which apparently deflected off Martin Erat’s stick to slide passed LaBarbera. The Kings pulled LaBarbera after that goal and replaced him with Erik Ersberg. There were a few more chances later into the period which could’ve been converted, but Ersberg remained solid.
Jarret Stoll got two goals back to back in the 2nd. The first goal he scored was from his own rebound. Ellis should’ve had this one. The second goal was scored on a 5-3. Stoll fired one from the hash marks above Ellis’ blocker side. This second goal totally killed the momentum we had gained from the goals in the first. It became a complete re-run of Thursday night’s failure. We were lucky to keep the Kings from scoring again before the period ended.
The first ten minutes of the 3rd period were frustrating to watch. It was sloppy play. We would dump the puck into their zone and not even go after it. Finally, 10:54 into the 3rd, Joel Ward gave a pass into the zone for Jared Smithson, who blasted it past Ersberg. This got the momentum going again. A little under a minute later, Jordin Tootoo crashed the net and put a backhander in for the fifth goal of the night and free Wendy’s Frosties. Exactly two minutes after the Tootoo goal, Dustin Brown blew one past Ellis. Our defense was very weak on this one. With 1:08 left in regulation, Alexander Frolov just slid the puck past Ellis. Ellis was completely out of position on this one. Eventually time winded down and we barely escaped with a win. This is two games in a row where we’ve had a burst of goals and then complete meltdown. I’m still happy with the win though.
Ellis had a difficult night. Lately, a lot of the goals scored on him are the result of rebounds he didn’t grab. That’s something he needs to spend some time working on. Jason Lababera had a rough night. Three quick goals in the first, game over. Erick Ersberg, for a backup, did alright. He had to come in and clean up LaBarbera’s mess, three goals down.
The Pred’s power play clocked out at 2/3. We’re just throwing pucks at the net and letting the trash slide in. Keep it up. Our penalty kill killed off 5/6 power plays, which included two 5-on-3s. I Can’t complain too much with that.
Greg DeVries had a terrible night last night. He was completely out of it. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.
I hope we don’t have to worry about keeping our lead like we have the past two games. It’s very frustrating.
Jackson Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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