Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick had his best game of the NHL finals, making 32 saves to put the Kings on the cusp of another Stanley Cup with a 3-0 victory over the New York Rangers in Game 3 on Monday night.
Los Angeles escaped with two overtime wins at home and then took complete command inside Madison Square Garden to take a 3-0 series lead.
The Kings took their first lead of the series with Jeff Carter's goal in the final second of the first period and then stretched the edge to three goals in the second - something the Rangers failed to do in California.
New York is facing elimination Wednesday night in Game 4.
While there has been only one comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the finals, the Kings erased such a deficit in the first round against San Jose.
Defenceman Jake Muzzin scored a power-play goal in the second period, and Mike Richards pushed the lead to three with a goal off a 2-on-1 in the middle frame.
Henrik Lundqvist was hardly at fault on the goals, and finished with 12 saves.
But Quick was perfect.
He made a brilliant save with his stick blade to deny Derick Brassard with eight minutes left in the second shortly after a Rangers power play. That stop came on the heels of Brassard having two chances during the advantage off a rebound of Brad Richards' shot. Brassard's first attempt was blocked, and the second was stopped by Quick.
The Kings goalie was also on his toes just eight seconds into the third period when Chris Kreider came in alone but was stopped in tight.
That eliminated the little hope the sold-out, towel-waving crowd had of a big comeback.
"You make one save, and you're trying to make the next one and go from there," Quick said.
"They got a great team so you're not trying to take anything for granted while it's going on. You're just trying to make one save at a time. The team played great in front of me cleared out a lot of rebounds that I left in front."
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