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Couture: You can’t give a team like L.A. any life

Jonathan Quick, Logan Couture

Jonathan Quick, Logan Couture

AP

The San Jose Sharks have a 3-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Kings after winning in overtime last night, but they still see Game 4 as an important contest. Even if they will get four chances to finish off Los Angeles, they don’t want to allow the 2012 Stanley Cup champions to gain any momentum.

“We’re going to do what we can to win, finish them in four,” said Sharks forward Logan Couture, per CSN Bay Area. “You can’t give a good team like the L.A. Kings life. We’re going to do whatever we can. We know they’re going to be desperate. We have to match their desperation and play our best game this series to beat them.”

It’s not just the fear of the Kings pulling off an unlikely comeback that’s motivating San Jose. The Sharks remember what happened in 2011 when they took a 3-0 series lead against Detroit in the second round only for the Red Wings to force a Game 7. San Jose won that series, but the Vancouver Canucks ousted them in five contests in the Western Conference Final.

Sharks coach Todd McLellan speculated that allowing the Red Wings to get back into that series hurt the Sharks even if they still came out on top.

San Jose is hoping that this is the year the team wins the Stanley Cup after making the playoffs in each of the last nine campaigns and coming up short. The Sharks are off to a great start, but they still have a ton of work ahead of them.

Related:

Two years after winning the Cup, the Kings’ ‘mix’ comes into question

Sutter vows Kings ‘won’t go away quietly’

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