Handzus, Doughty lead Kings’ power play in 5-3 win over Canucks, 2-1 series lead

Kings charge past Canucks for 2-1 series lead

LOS ANGELES — If the Los Angeles Kings’ fearsome power play keeps lighting up Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks, their long-suffering fans won’t have to wait eight years for their next playoff series.

Michal Handzus scored two power-play goals, Drew Doughty had a goal and three assists, and the Kings chased Luongo during a 5-3 victory Monday night, taking a 2-1 series lead in their first home postseason game since 2002.

Brad Richardson and Ryan Smyth also scored and Jonathan Quick made 25 saves as the sixth-seeded Kings moved ahead in the best-of-seven series with another standout game from their relentless power play, which has seven goals after connecting three more times in Game 3.

Mikael Samuelsson scored his fourth goal of the series for Vancouver, which trimmed a three-goal deficit to 4-3 before the Kings finished strong.

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Staples Center, where the increasingly shaky Luongo doesn’t exactly feel at home.

The Canucks’ star goalie and Canadian Olympic hero gave up eight goals in an embarrassing loss to the Kings just 18 days ago, and he stopped just 12 shots before getting pulled late in the second period of Game 3 in front of a raucous Hollywood crowd watching its first home playoff game since April 27, 2002.

Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin also scored for third-seeded Vancouver, and Sedin had another apparent goal disallowed by video review.

Doughty and defenseman Jack Johnson, who had three assists, expertly ran the show as Los Angeles’ power play again shredded the Canucks, scoring on each of its three chances in Game 3 — and connecting each time before the first power-play unit even left the ice.

Yet the Kings’ defensive play against Vancouver’s vaunted Sedin twins line was just as important, holding the Sedins and Alex Burrows to one shot in the first 40 minutes. NHL scoring champion Henrik Sedin has no goals and three assists in the series, while Burrows is scoreless.

Each club won a 3-2 overtime game to open the series in Vancouver, with the Kings evening it by rallying from a two-goal deficit and shutting out the Canucks for the final 57½ minutes of Game 2 before Anze Kopitar’s winner.

After frenzied pregame festivities including a live punk band, Vancouver silenced the crowd just 2:09 in on Raymond’s goal. Yet after stressing discipline before traveling to Los Angeles, the Canucks couldn’t have been happy with their three penalties in the first two periods — and did the Kings ever make them pay.

Doughty evened it midway through the first with a low slap shot through traffic for the first career playoff goal by the 20-year-old Canadian Olympian, who has emerged as a star this season.

After Henrik Sedin took a holding penalty early in the second period, Handzus connected on a rebound of Johnson’s shot for his first goal of the postseason. Smyth accidentally skated over Luongo’s hand during the play, leaving the goalie in apparent pain.

After Handzus batted in a rebound to put the Kings up 3-1, Vancouver’s Kyle Wellwood and Aaron Rome made back-to-back giveaways in their own end leading to Richardson’s score on a spin move. Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault then pulled his befuddled goalie, who has given up 12 goals in less than five periods during his past two games in Los Angeles.

After Andrew Raycroft relieved Luongo and Samuelsson trimmed the Kings’ lead, Daniel Sedin appeared to add another goal early in the third when a pass deflected off his right skate and under Quick.

But the goal was disallowed after a lengthy video review determined the puck had been kicked in. Vigneault, whose club lost Game 2 after a questionable penalty for too many men on the ice led to the Kings’ decisive power-play goal, greeted this decision with a frustrated grimace.

Just a few seconds later, Sedin scored a no-doubt goal on a long shot through traffic with 15:42 to play, but Smyth boosted the Kings’ lead when his long shot hit Christian Ehrhoff and became a changeup that fooled Raycroft.

NOTES: Handzus has just nine goals in 63 career playoff games. … The Kings stuck with the lineup switches made by coach Terry Murray before Game 2, with veteran F Justin Williams again scratched and replaced on the top line by 21-year-old agitator Wayne Simmonds. … Vigneault sometimes shuffled his lines and made two personnel changes for Game 3, scratching penalty-prone D Andrew Alberts and C Rick Rypien in favor of D Aaron Rome and F Tanner Glass, who made his NHL playoff debut. Rome had been out for several days with an undisclosed injury.