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Get your game notes: Kings at Ducks

Mathieu Perreault, Jake Muzzin, Drew Doughty, Mike Richards

Mathieu Perreault, Jake Muzzin, Drew Doughty, Mike Richards

AP

Tonight on NBCSN, it’s the Anaheim Ducks hosting the Los Angeles Kings starting at 10 p.m. ET. Following are some game notes, as compiled by the NHL on NBC research team:

• For the 22nd time in Stanley Cup playoff history – and the 16th time since 1994 – the road team won the first four games of a best-of-seven series. In the previous 21 series, the winner of Game 5 went on to win 18 times (.857 win%). The only three teams that lost Game 5, but later won the series, were the 1980 North Stars (vs. Montreal), 1995 Sharks (vs. Calgary) and 2001 Penguins (vs. Buffalo). (Elias Sports Bureau)

• Ducks goaltender John Gibson stopped all 28 shots for a shutout in his NHL postseason debut. The 20-year-old Pittsburgh native, who won gold medals at the international level for Team USA at the U-17 (2010), U-18 (2011) and U-20 (2013) levels, made NHL history in several ways. Elias Sports Bureau
Gibson became...

-- the youngest goalie in NHL history to record a shutout in his Stanley Cup playoffs debut (20 years, 330 days),

-- the sixth goalie since 1954 to post a shutout in his Stanley Cup playoffs debut (the most recent of the five previous was his current back-up, Jonas Hiller, in 2009)

-- the fourth-youngest goalie in NHL history to record a postseason shutout (after Detroit’s Harry Lumley in 1945, Montreal’s Patrick Roy in 1986 and Carey Price in 2008),

-- the second goalie in NHL history to record a shutout in both his first regular-season (Apr. 7 vs. Vancouver) and postseason games (Boston’s Tiny Thompson did so in 1928-29)

• The Ducks helped Gibson’s cause by blocking 25 shots in Game 4, led by defensemen Ben Lovejoy (six) and Bryan Allen (five). It was the fifth time this playoff round that any team has blocked 25 or more shots. Four of those times (Montreal – 30 in Game 1, 29 in Game 3; Chicago - 25 in Game 2; and Anaheim – 25 in Game 4), the team won. The only team to lose was the Ducks, which posted 29 blocks in its Game 1 overtime loss to the Kings. They have 72 total in this series (avg. 18.0/game).

• After registering at least one point in his team’s first 10 games, Kings center Anze Kopitar was held without a point in Game 4. The playoff scoring leader (4-11–15) also committed a double-minor for high sticking in the third period, thwarting a possible comeback for his team. Only once in 55 career playoff games has Kopitar spent more time in the penalty box than he did in Game 4 (four minutes): he was assessed a five-minute major for fighting Vancouver’s Alexandre Burrows in 2012.

• As Ryan Getzlaf goes, so go the Ducks in the playoffs. The Anaheim center and team captain, who ranks second in franchise history with 25 goals (behind teammate Teemu Selanne – 35), has single goals in 25 of 78 postseason games. Including his goal that gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead in Game 4, Anaheim is 23-2 when he scores a goal.

• Kings goaltender Martin Jones relieved starter Jonathan Quick (two goals allowed on 11 shots) after the first intermission, and did not face a shot until the 5:29 point of the third period (Getzlaf). The Kings became only the third team in the Expansion Era (1968-present) to allow no shots on goal in an entire period of a playoff game. They were the second team of the trio to lose. (Elias Sports Bureau)