CHICAGO — Jeff Carter and the Los Angeles Kings know how to come back in the playoffs. This was no big deal compared to the first two rounds.
Carter scored three of Los Angeles’ six straight goals, and the Kings beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-2 on Wednesday night to even the Western Conference final at a game apiece.
Tyler Toffoli and Jake Muzzin also scored in Los Angeles’ five-goal third period to help the Kings become the first visiting team to win in Chicago this postseason. The Blackhawks won their first seven home playoff games this year, but the Kings skated right by Chicago after the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks took a 2-0 lead in the second period.
“Just sticking with what we need to do,” Carter said. “You know, we got a good group of leaders in our room. We’ve been through comebacks and whatnot a lot lately. Obviously, not something we want to do. But we stick with it, grind it out, get the job done.”
The early deficit was just a small speed bump for Los Angeles, dubbed the comeback Kings for their play in the opening two rounds.
Los Angeles trailed 3-0 in its first playoff series against San Jose, and won four straight games to eliminate the Sharks. The Kings overcame a 3-2 series deficit in the second round against top-seeded Anaheim.
“We know we can win,” forward Jarret Stoll said. “That’s the bottom line. They’ve got a good team, but we feel we do too.”
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Nick Leddy and Ben Smith scored for Chicago, which won 3-1 in Game 1 on Sunday.
“The way it turned on a dime like that, I don’t know if we’ve seen a game like that all year where we’re doing everything all right and all of a sudden it was a disaster,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
Chicago was in position for its fourth consecutive win before Carter redirected Drew Doughty’s slap shot by Corey Crawford to tie it at 2 just 1:37 into the third. Muzzin then had another power-play score at 4:04 that gave Los Angeles the lead.
Once the Kings got going, they appeared to get almost anything they wanted against the sagging Blackhawks.
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