Kings are Quickly gaining respect, beat Oilers

[Mateo]

Game 36: Kings 3, Oilers 2

Coming off a rough loss against Vancouver, the Kings match up against the surging Oilers, who just came back from a 5-1-0 roadie. Everyone is now aware of L.A.'s talent now, and everyone's gunning for them. The question remains, which King will come forward and assume the mantle of greatness this game?

Brad Richardson draws first blood in a spirited first period that the Kings look way sharper than they did in last night's game. The assist goes to the Cap'n, Dustin Brown. Later in the second, Brown scores to loft the Kings to a 2-goal lead, as Richardson paid him back with a beauty of an assist. Brown has really stepped it up recently, something he's been needing to do as leader of this young squad.

But the Oilers came storming back to eventually tie the game in the third period. The vocal crowd at Rexall Place was spurring their team on, providing the Oil with enough gas to continue their assault on Jonny (Don't Call Me Jonathon) Quick. Thing is, no one bothered to tell Quick that crowd noise was supposed to intimidate him.

Because it didn't, not one bit. Quick turned away chance after chance after chance, showing the type of poise that has been unheard of by Kings netminders in recent history. He put his 25-of-28 save night behind him, and tightened the screws to only allow one goal in 29 shots Wednesday. He credited, who else, his team. From Rich Hammond:

"I felt good out there. I got a lot of help," Quick said. "I had a couple posts, and I had Greener clear one out from behind me that slipped through, so I got some luck. We did a great job of blocking shots and clearing out rebounds. It was a real good win.”

The injuries continue to mount, as the mighty Jack Johnson, he of the awesome retro purple shirt, was felled by an ankle injury in the second period. But as they have done seemingly every game, the Kings absorbed the hit and kept on truckin'. Jack tried to come back in the second, but couldn't go. A "fluoroscopic x-ray" revealed nothing, so they'll look at it again in Calgary.

http://www.letsgokings.com/bbs/f7/kings_quickly_gaining_respect_defeat_oilers-146491.html