Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings skate against each other for Game 4 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 series live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The game can be live streamed for free here. San Jose fans can hear all of the action on KFOX 102.1 while Los Angeles fans can do the same on KLAA 830.
San Jose looks to complete the sweep of the series and become just the second team to advance to the second round and first from the Western Conference while Los Angeles hopes to get into the series and avoid being swept away in front of their home fans.
The Sharks won the first three games by notching wins in San Jose with a 6-3 Game 1 triumph and 7-3 Game 2 victory and then they came to Los Angeles and defeated the Kings at home in overtime 4-3 in Game 3.
The Sharks swept the Vancouver Canucks last season before losing to the Kings in the second round. The team is no stranger to having dominant first rounds and then failing to keep the momentum.
Coach Todd McLellan was asked if they talked about last year's struggle after the first-round sweep and if they'd implicate the strategies form last season's first-round sweep into tonight.
"We have already," McLellan told NHL.com about the team's discussions. "In fact, we went further because we've had two different experiences. We had the Detroit experience with a large part of this group where we didn't close them out and it went seven games and perhaps that hurt us after we did win Game 7. With the Vancouver experience last year, that was the Canucks' best game in the series. They pushed us as hard as they could, and we expect the same [Thursday] night."
Even though they're down 3-0 in the series, Los Angeles isn't ready to give up just yet.
"Anything is possible if you're still playing hockey, you still have a chance," Mike Richards, who came back from a 3-0 deficit as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers said per ESPN. "You just can't look at the mountain and expect to do it all at once. It's a process to just put games together, put shifts together. And it starts with Thursday night. You can't win four unless you win one."
Jeff Carter (one goal, two assists) and Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar (three assists each) are tied for the team lead with three points in the series.
For the Sharks, Patrick Marleau has three goals with one in each game of the series along with two assists for five points while Joe Pavelski also has five points off of one tally and four helpers and Matthew Nieto has found the twine once and added three helpers for four points.
Antti Niemi will suit up between the pipes for San Jose after allowing eight goals and stopping 91 shots while Jonathan Quick will man the crease after allowing 16 goals through the first three games on 108 shot.
The Sharks look for the sweep while the Kings search for their first win of the series when the puck drops on Game 4 tonight as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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