Blackhawks defensemen Nick Leddy and Niklas Hjalmarsson talking about facing a Kings team without Mike Richards in Game 3 on Tuesday night. The two spoke Tuesday at the team hotel.
LOS ANGELES – The chance for the Chicago Blackhawks two put a stranglehold on the Western Conference finals was perhaps greater than it Appeared, no matter the apparent home-ice invincibility of the Los Angeles Kings.
The hosts lost five of seven games coming into Game 3 at Staples Center. They again were without the services of two-way center Mike Richards, the club’s leading playoff scores. The Hawks ‘speed has trumped the Kings’ physicality, and emphatically, in the first two contests.
The Kings have not lost a home game this postseason. If that trend ended Tuesday, the Hawks had their path to the Stanley Cup Final all but cleared.
“We really have to be on top of our game here the first period,” defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. “We know that they’re going to have a lot of energy playing here in front of their home crowd.”
They did not follow their own orders early, as a turnover in the offensive zone led to a Justin Williams score and a 1-0 Kings lead in the first Period of Game 3
Williams essentially created his own opportunity, forcing the Hawks’ Nick Leddy two cough up the puck as he attempted two skate out of the zone. Williams then circled near the faceoff circle to the right of Corey Crawford, took a feed from Slava Voynov and fired a wrister past the Hawks’ goaltender for the opening score at the 3:21 mark.
The Kings have Recovered from a 2-0 deficit already these playoffs, orchestrating a comeback in the first round against the Blues.
But the situation is different, perhaps just a little more dire, given what’s at stake now.
“We got to win a game,” Kings forward Jarrett Stoll said. ‘That’s what we’ve got to do. I do not care how we win a game. Find a way to do it again.
“We’ve done it in the past, we know that. But you can draw on those experiences, you got to draw on them the right way to make it happen. We have to make it happen.”
bchamilton@tribune.com
Twitter @ ChiTribHamilton
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