While the goal was his fourth of a playoff series that has defined the high mark of his Kings captaincy, it was a punishing shoulder-to-shoulder hit leveled on Vancouver's Henrik Sedin in the second period that served notice of Los Angeles' refusal to back down against the defending Western Conference champions in a physical first-round series.
That, and it'll be on team highlight reels for years to come.
"It sparked our energy," Brown said of the huge hit. "We didn't play as well as we could have in the first period and it was just one of those games that is kind of in between for everyone involved. I think it gave us a lot of energy."
Wobbly after the hit but able to return quickly, Sedin had a Game 3 that seemed to represent the trouble he's had solving the Kings' suffocating defense. He finished with one shot on goal, no hits, no blocked shots, was 5 for 18 in the faceoff circle and clearly is missing the dynamic chemistry long established with his twin brother, Daniel, who missed his third consecutive game due to a concussion and did not fly to Los Angeles.
"We played one hell of a game tonight," Henrik Sedin said. "On the 5-on-5 we were all over them. The power play was better. If we keep playing like this, we are going to score goals."
With only one playoff series win since their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993 — a 2001 six-game upset of Detroit in the first round — the S.S. Lombardi is entering uncharted waters.
"You've got to go through situations where you don't have success to learn what you did wrong," defenseman Willie Mitchell said at Sunday's morning skate. "The defining moments within a series you have to find a way to get through and be successful. So that hasn't happened here. I think we've added pieces over the last couple years that have been through that a little bit, and that's going to help this time around. So we look to do that, and we're going to have to do that against the best team in the NHL over the course of the regular season, so it's going to be a tough hurdle for us. But we like the challenge."
It's not only the prospect of postseason success that is relatively new for the Kings. Quick turned in the finest performance by a goaltender in club history in a regular season in which he notched 35 wins, posted a 1.95 goals-against average and .929 save percentage and led the NHL with 10 shutouts. With his second career postseason shutout on Sunday, he finally has given the organization a consistently strong presence in net and the ability to win games on his own.
Other than late season and playoff valiance by Felix Potvin in 2001, the Kings generally have won playoff games by relying on offense. With Gretzky, Los Angeles lost playoff series in the early 1990's to goalies Bill Ranford (three times), Mike Vernon and Patrick Roy.
With Quick in the fold, plus a deep one-through-six defensive corps, a perfect storm in the back end is brewing.
"Guys sacrificing all over the ice and making sure [pucks] weren't getting through," Quick said of the team-wide defensive performance. "They've been doing it all year and they did a great job tonight. That's something that everybody expects out of each other and it's something they've done really well."
While everything seems to be coming up silver and black, it still takes four games to win a playoff series, and Los Angeles won't be expecting anything other than the strongest effort Vancouver can throw at them Wednesday night.
"The roughest part of winning is…the first game, then the second game gets tougher and the third game gets tougher and the fourth game gets tougher," coach Darryl Sutter said.
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