Los Angeles, CA – Justin Williams scored the winner in the third period to give the Los Angeles Kings a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues in Game 4 of this Western Conference quarterfinal series.
Anze Kopitar tied the game just before Williams' goal, while Dustin Penner and Jeff Carter had first-period goals for the Kings, who evened this best-of- seven series at 2-2 with a pair of wins at home. Jonathan Quick stopped 19 shots in the win.
"Quick has made some big saves to keep us in it," said Kopitar. "And it's nice to get enough goals to reward him. It's the small things that give you success. Fortunately we got the two goals in the third and they held up."
T.J. Oshie had two goals while David Backers also lit the lamp for the Blues, who had taken a pair of 2-1 wins in St. Louis. Brian Elliott made 25 stops in the loss.
"They took the game to another level and we didn't have an answer," said St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock. "We didn't manage the puck very well in the second or third period and they dialed it up. Now it's our job to answer."
Game 5 of this best-of-seven series takes place Wednesday in St. Louis.
St. Louis held a 3-2 lead going into the third period, but the Kings tied things up when Dustin Brown danced around with the puck along the right boards before sending it to the front where Kopitar one-timed it home at 7:14.
With the crowd still pumped up from the previous goal, Los Angeles went up 1:16 later as a quick shot from the left boards by Mike Richards was tipped into the net by Williams for his second of the playoffs.
From there, Quick did the rest, but he didn't need to do much as the Los Angeles defense neutralized the St. Louis attack by limiting the team to just five shots to help the team even the series.
The Blues got on the board just 1:12 into the game as Jay Bouwmeester's shot from the left wing went wide, but it bounced off the backboards and went to the right side where Backers shot it home.
Just over three minutes later on the power play, the Blues made it a 2-0 game as Kevin Shattenkirk's big blast from the high slot was re-directed into the net by Oshie.
The Kings cut their deficit in half at 9:33 as a rush play saw Richards send the puck from the left wing to the slot where Carter shifted to the backhand before putting the disc behind Elliott.
A turnover by Jordan Leopold at the left point saw Los Angeles break the other way on a 3-on-1 break. Jarret Stoll sent the puck from the right side to the trailing Alec Martinez, who sent it back to Stoll for the pass over to the left where Penner finished off the rush with his first of the playoffs.
The Blues went up 3-2 at the 5:46 mark of the second period as Vladimir Sobotka's big shot from the right wing was stopped, but the rebound sat there and Oshie lifted it in for his second of the game.
Game Notes
St. Louis was 1-for-2 on the power play while Los Angeles failed on its two chances ... St. Louis has won the two previous playoff matchups against Los Angeles ... The Kings have come back from a 0-2 hole to win a series once in team history, a six-game defeat of Detroit in the 2001 Western Conference quarterfinals ... The Kings took all three games against the Blues in the regular season.
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