Diving attempt: San Jose's Jason Demers (left) and Los Angeles' Jarret Stoll vie for the puck in the second period of Game 4 on Thursday night. The Sharks beat the Kings 6-3 to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round series. AP PHOTO
LOS, Angeles — The Sharks and Kings skated through a scoreless opening period. Then Scott Nichol lured Los Angeles star defenseman Drew Doughty off the ice with offsetting roughing penalties, opening the door to three straight goals by San Jose.
The Kings never fully recovered.
Ryane Clowe scored twice, Jason Demers added another goal in the second period and the Sharks won 6-3 on Thursday night to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
"Nichol is the reason why they won," Kings coach Terry Murray said. "Three goals were directly responsible for Nichol's game."
Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski scored in a 54-second span early in the third and Torrey Mitchell followed with his first goal of the playoffs to extend the Sharks' lead.
"I don't know what it is," Doughty said. "They're scoring easy goals. We're giving them tap-in goals and that's not something we usually do."
The Sharks return to San Jose for Game 5 on Saturday night having swept the Kings on their home ice.
"It's a great opportunity," Clowe said. "You take a 3-1 lead and you're going back to home ice to wrap it up. We should be fired up and we should want to close it out right there."
Los Angeles gave up 12 goals in its two home games.
"That's embarrassing," Jack Johnson said. "We're not going to win a game if they score six goals a game. We're a defensive team and if we're letting in that many goals we're in a lot of trouble."
The Kings had a 5-on-3 for much of the final 3 minutes after Dany Heatley was penalized for tripping and Nichol got a 10-minute misconduct, but they failed to convert. The frustrated Kings got two 10-minute misconducts themselves in the closing seconds.
Blackhawks 5, Canucks 0
In Vancouver, defenseman Duncan Keith had two goals and two assists and Chicago stayed alive in its Stanley Cup title defense, routing Vancouver to cut the Canucks' lead to 3-2 in the first-round series.
Marian Hossa, with his first two goals of the series, and Patrick Kane, with his first, also scored, and rookie Corey Crawford made 36 saves for his first playoff shutout.
Since losing the first three games of the best-of-seven series, the Blackhawks dominated a Canucks team that it eliminated from the playoffs the last two seasons.
Bruins 5, Canadiens 4 (OT)
In Montreal, Michael Ryder scored 1:59 into overtime to give Boston a victory over the Canadiens, tying the Eastern Conference series 2-2.
Ryder, the former Montreal winger who also scored in the second period, took Chris Kelly's pass from behind the net and shot past Carey Price to give Boston its second victory in a row at the Bell Centre after the Bruins dropped the first two games at home.
Kelly brought Boston even for the third time in the game, scoring with 6:18 left in the third period. He put away a loose puck at his feet in the goalmouth for his second of the series.
Patrice Bergeron and Andrew Ference added goals for the Bruins. Tim Thomas made 34 saves.
Michael Cammalleri had a goal and two assists for the Canadiens.
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