A goal less than ten seconds into the game off the opening face-off got the Kings into an early hole that we were never able to climb out off.  Penalty trouble was again an issue, with three Kings receiving ten minute misconducts, which might be a new dubious Kings record.  But the flip side of that bad news was that the penalty kill was solid for most of the game.  Unfortunately, the (power) play was still lacking power and failed to generate any good sustained pressure.  While the Kings played much of the game in their defense zone and stuck in the neutral zone,  Ed made several great saves to keep the Kings in the game.  If we could have broken through to tie the game at 1-1 things might have been different.  Their goalie did look somewhat shaky, and we didn’t really test him too often.  The score remained 1-0 until about half way through the third, when the River Rats broke it open with two quick goals (one shorthanded) to go up 3-0.  The Kings broke through to score and break the shutout with about two minutes left.  It was a frustrating game and just not our evening.

This loss should hopefully serve as a wake up call, as the Kings continue to fine tune their game for hopefully another regular season championship and a long playoff run.