LA Kings put pressure on San Jose Sharks before Game 4

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty senses a little bit of worry creeping into the San Jose Sharks in their first-round series.

“You know they’re thinking a little bit about it now, so we’re right where we want to be,” Doughty said after a 2-1 overtime win over the Sharks on Monday.

That victory put the series at 2-1 in favor of the Sharks and prevented San Jose from taking a commanding 3-0 lead. The Sharks blew a 3-0 lead to the Kings in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but had often brought up this is a different group that’s not likely to make the same mistake again.

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Blowing a 2-0 lead going home isn’t as bad as blowing a 3-0 series lead, but it would again lead to questions on whether the Kings are in the Sharks’ heads. The Sharks shrugged off any notion that the Kings have seized their momentum.

“It happened to be one shot in overtime. It could have been either way – Donskoi had a great look before that could have easily been the game winner, too,” forward Chris Tierney told CSN Bay Area. “Obviously we didn’t play our best game. … I think there’s a lot of confidence in this group that if we get back to the way we can play and really ramp it up, we should be OK this game.”

If San Jose wants to head to Los Angeles with a 3-1 lead, they’ll have to figure out a way to get more scoring balance up and down their lineup. This was their biggest issue going into the postseason, and it dragged down the team in their Game 3 loss.

ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun pointed out Sharks coach Peter DeBoer hardly shifted his fourth line in the third period, a strategy that may not work for the rest of the series against the Kings – a group that likes to roll four lines. The Sharks’ first line of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl have combined for five of the seven goals scored by the team so far this playoff.

The entire fourth line of Tommy Wingels, Tierney and Nick Spaling took minor penalties in Game 3, and DeBoer said he needed more discipline out of the group.

“This isn’t on the fourth line,” DeBoer said. “The fourth line is taking too many minor penalties, that’s something they need to fix, but we need more out of the depth of our lineup and that includes the [other lines].”

When the Kings have made past playoff runs, center Anze Kopitar and captain Dustin Brown played big roles. Through Games 1 and 2 they hadn’t been at the top of their games. But in Game 3, Kopitar scored a goal and a big hit by Brown led to Tanner Pearson’s game-winner. Game 4 will determine if that was just a one-game scenario or if both players are ready to step up and knot the series for LA.

“It’s a part of our game and what gives us success, so we want to keep getting in on the forecheck and keep finishing our checks,” LA forward Milan Lucic said. “It paid off for us on the winning goal last game. When Brownie is doing things like that, that’s when he’s helping our the team the best. Just got to keep up that physical play, and you hope that it keeps giving you some kind of success.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper