Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Kings earned a small amount of breathing space in the jam-packed Western Conference play-off race with a nail-biting 2-1 shootout victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Jarret Stoll scored in regulation time and during the shootout while goaltender Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and forced two shootout misses from Calgary to move the Kings into sole possession of fifth place in the West, one point behind Phoenix.
Anze Kopitar netted the decisive shootout score with a cheeky shot that he nonchalantly slid through the legs of Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
"I didn't know (where I was going to shoot) off the bat. I tried the shot and it's a good thing it worked for me," Kopitar said.
Big game
"We knew how big this game was. We just want to keep this pace up and go from there."
Despite their fifth loss in six games, the Flames (37-27-11) earned a point and are in a three-way tie for eighth in the conference and just three points behind Los Angeles (41-26-6).
Olli Jokinen forced overtime for Calgary with the equaliser at 15:13 in the third, but the visitors could not break through during overtime and missed their last two attempts in the shootout.
Quick has now won all eight of his shootouts this season. "He's very athletic and a very flexible guy," Stoll said of his teammate.
"You can tell when guys are going in on him that he's reading the shot. He gives us confidence."
RESULTS
Pittsburgh 5 DETROIT 4
LOS ANGELES 2 Calgary 1
Jarret Stoll scored in regulation time and during the shootout while goaltender Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and forced two shootout misses from Calgary to move the Kings into sole possession of fifth place in the West, one point behind Phoenix.
Anze Kopitar netted the decisive shootout score with a cheeky shot that he nonchalantly slid through the legs of Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
"I didn't know (where I was going to shoot) off the bat. I tried the shot and it's a good thing it worked for me," Kopitar said.
Big game
"We knew how big this game was. We just want to keep this pace up and go from there."
Despite their fifth loss in six games, the Flames (37-27-11) earned a point and are in a three-way tie for eighth in the conference and just three points behind Los Angeles (41-26-6).
Olli Jokinen forced overtime for Calgary with the equaliser at 15:13 in the third, but the visitors could not break through during overtime and missed their last two attempts in the shootout.
Quick has now won all eight of his shootouts this season. "He's very athletic and a very flexible guy," Stoll said of his teammate.
"You can tell when guys are going in on him that he's reading the shot. He gives us confidence."
RESULTS
Pittsburgh 5 DETROIT 4
LOS ANGELES 2 Calgary 1
