The natural hat trick amounted to a 4-0 victory in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, which the Kings now lead 2-0 as the scene shifts to their own pond at the Staples Center.
As it happened, Carter’s first goal aroused a self-feeding monster for his Kings and self-destructing behavior for the opposing Coyotes. When he swooped to the porch of the Phoenix net to tap in a forward pass by Dustin Penner, he spawned the first two-goal deficit in the Coyotes’ playoff run that did not come by virtue of an empty-netter.
After 10 minutes and 10 seconds of vain, uneventful endeavors to recompense the deficit, Phoenix began to swell up its penalty-minute tab with 5:03 remaining in the middle frame. The result was 11 minutes and 32 seconds of power-play time for Los Angeles out of the final 25:03 of game action.
Carter, who only saw 8:48 of even-strength time but 7:44 on the power play, would pounce on a pair of five-on-three segments induced by boarding majors and various minor infractions.
With 1:11 remaining in the second, Daymond Langkow was off for slashing while Coyotes captain Shane Doan was tossed for a hit from behind on Trevor Lewis. In the waning seconds of the two-man advantage, Carter served as the screen while Anze Kopitar absorbed Justin Williams’ feed from the far corner.
Kopitar’s wrister from the inner hash marks brushed off Carter’s boot and to the right of goaltender Mike Smith, giving the February import from Columbus credit for his second goal.
It only took 13 seconds for Carter to make Phoenix pay for another set of overlapping penalties. Martin Hanzal’s five-minute sentence for boarding was not yet half-over an...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Kings
