The Los Angeles Kings Are Shutout By The San Jose Sharks, 4-0

In a game heard live on KHTS Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Kings lost to the San Jose Sharks by a final score of 4-0. Tune in Sunday afternoon for our next Kings home game against the Winnipeg Jets. Pregame starts at 6:30 pm, on AM-1220 KHTS!

To find out more about the Kings’ schedule this season, check out the calendar here!

Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox.

For all the latest news about Santa Clarita sports!

Check out the Los Angeles Kings on the web at lakings.com!

LOS ANGELES — The San Jose Sharks got the fourth one against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. This time they didn’t need it.

The Sharks crashed the last big celebration of Los Angeles’ 2014 Stanley Cup championship and ruined the party at Staples Center with a 4-0 victory against the Kings, who prior to the game raised their second championship banner in front of a standing-room only sellout crowd of 18,514.

The Kings also lost their home-opener in 2013 (5-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks) after raising the banner for their 2012 Stanley Cup championship.

Sharks forward Tommy Wingels scored two goals and goalie Antti Niemi, who was not announced as the starting goalie until Wednesday, made 34 saves. Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto scored and Brent Burns had two assists in his first game as a defenseman in approximately 18 months. Burns had 22 goals and 48 points as a forward last season.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick stopped 23 of 27 shots and was relieved by Martin Jones at the start of the third period. Marleau stripped the puck from Quick behind the net leading to Nieto’s goal at 16:04 of the second period. It put San Jose ahead 4-0.

The Sharks couldn’t get the fourth win against the Kings last season in the Western Conference First Round. They let a 3-0 lead slip away and lost four in a row by a combined 18-5 to become the fourth team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 series lead and lose in seven games.

The Kings won two more Game 7s on the road (they set an NHL record with three in the postseason) before beating the New York Rangers in five games (three in overtime) to win the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons.

The Sharks were left facing adversity all offseason stemming from comments made by general manager Doug Wilson that they were going into rebuilding mode. They stripped Joe Thornton of the captaincy and didn’t add any significant pieces to the roster.

However, the Sharks’ lineup Wednesday didn’t look all that different from last season. Fifteen of the 20 players who dressed in the season opener were in the lineup for Game 7 against the Kings last spring.

Defenseman Mirco Mueller and forward Chris Tierney made their NHL debuts. Tye McGinn, who was with the Philadelphia Flyers last season, had an assist on Wingels’ first goal.

At least for one night, the Sharks looked like a team that has either moved on from last season’s King-sized collapse or has decided to use it as motivation to quiet all the critics that talked about their demise since Game 7.

Whatever it was, their method worked Wednesday.

Wingels gave San Jose a 1-0 lead in the first period with a shot that measured high on the degree of difficulty scale. He put it past Quick and into the top right corner of the net from below the left circle at 5:43.

Marleau scored a power-play goal from inside the right circle at 3:20 of the second period. He did a half-moon turn back into the circle by the hash marks and redirected Burns’ shot from the right point.

Wingels, who last season had career highs in goals (16), assists (22) and points (38), showed some more of his skill at 15:50 of the second to score his second goal. He chipped the puck forward at center ice and beat Kings defensemen Drew Doughty and Brayden McNabb into the zone before collecting the puck in between the hash marks. He quickly made a backhand-forehand-backhand deke to fool Quick and score San Jose’s third goal.

Nieto scored 14 seconds later.

The Kings had an excuse for their slow start; they went through a pregame ceremony that featured multiple videos, each player getting introduced, and the team as a whole helping to raise the banner above the circle to the left of the home goal.

But they never picked it up enough after a sluggish start to have a chance.

Penalties hurt them; boarding calls on Drew Doughty and Mike Richards, tripping on Kyle Clifford and slashing onJarret Stoll were called within the first 25 minutes of the game. The Sharks had a goal on seven shots over four power plays and a 32-19 edge in faceoffs through 40 minutes.

Niemi, though, had to make two important saves before the Sharks broke it open on the goals by Wingels and Nieto.

His best save of the night came two minutes into the second period, when San Jose was playing with a 1-0 lead. He stuck out his right pad and stuffed Jeff Carter’s wraparound attempt that was targeted for the net.

Marleau scored 80 seconds later.

Niemi stopped Marian Gaborik’s shot on a breakaway with 5:54 remaining in the second period. Gaborik was agitated on the breakaway by Mueller, who raced diagonally back and across the zone to disrupt the breakaway enough to force Gaborik into an unwanted shot.

Wingels scored 1:44 later, Nieto 14 seconds after that.

The fourth one was a lot easier to get Wednesday, and it didn’t even matter this time.

San Jose will take it anyway.