LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Anze Kopitar skated down Dustin Brown and just plain tackled him, dropping the Los Angeles Kings captain to the ice as a sellout crowd expelled 19 years of frustration.
Brown’s goal into the empty St. Louis net had just secured a spot in the Western Conference finals for the Kings, who steamrolled their first two playoff opponents the same way Kopitar flattened his longtime teammate.
Eternal also-rans since joining the NHL nearly 45 years ago, the Kings are going deep in this postseason ― and the best of the West hasn’t slowed them down yet.
Brown scored two goals, Jonathan Quick made 23 saves, and the eighth-seeded Kings finished an improbable four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues with a 3-1 victory Sunday, advancing to the conference finals for just the second time in club history.
Rookie Jordan Nolan scored an early goal for the Kings, the first No. 8 seed in NHL history to eliminate their conference’s top two seeds in the same postseason. The Kings only clinched a playoff berth right before their 81st game, but they’ve been unstoppable ever since.
“It’s a special group, and we knew that all along this season,” said Kopitar, the Slovenian star who had assists on both of Brown’s goals. “Maybe we didn’t break out when we would have liked to, but I think we’ve peaked at the right time, and that’s the most important thing.”
After eliminating top-seeded Vancouver and second-seeded St. Louis with eight wins in nine games, the Kings are the first team to earn a conference final berth. They’ll face the winner of Phoenix’s series with Nashville in the Western Conference finals. The Coyotes lead 3-1, with Game 5 in Phoenix on Monday night.
Devils go up 3-1 on Flyers
NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) ― Dainius Zubrus scored two goals and the New Jersey Devils rallied from an early two-goal deficit and pushed the Philadelphia Flyers to the brink of elimination with a 4-2 victory Sunday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal.
Zubrus put New Jersey ahead 3-2 late in the second period and iced it with an empty-net goal in the final minute. Minutes after his first goal, Zubrus took a questionable hit to the head from Claude Giroux, a hit that Devils coach Peter DeBoer felt the NHL should examine before Game 5 on Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
“It was a great effort from the guys,” said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who had an easy night on his 40th birthday. “We started not the way we wanted to start the game. We get bang-bang ― a power-play goal and a short-handed goal ― but we beared down afterward and we dominated the game.”
Petr Sykora and Marek Zidlicky also scored for the Devils, who can advance to their first conference final since 2003.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
