Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick deflects the puck with his glove as St. Louis Blues Jason Arnott takes a stick to the head. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

The Los Angeles Kings scored just 31 seconds into the game, and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes of play. The #8 seed in the Western Conference heads home up 2-0 in this series with a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues Monday night at Scottrade Center.

The Blues were caught on their heels as they failed to get a shot on goal for nearly 10 minutes into the game. Meanwhile, the Kings jumped all over the Blues. Mike Richards scored L.A.’s first goal after Dustin Penner drove in from the side of the net. The puck slid out front where Richards buried it over a sprawled out Brian Elliott for the first goal.

After killing off two power plays, the Blues went on one of their own, but a turnover in their end resulted in a shorthanded goal by Anze Kopitar, putting the Kings up 2-0 at 14:16 of the period. L.A. scored twice again in the final 1:23 to make it a 4-0 lead.

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Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues, Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators and John Tortorella of the New York Rangers, are finalists for the 2012 Jack Adams Award, presented by the National Hockey League Broadcasters’ Association to “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”

Hitchcock took over in St. Louis on Nov. 6, replacing Davis Payne. At the time, the team was 6-7-0 and 14th in the Western Conference.  The team bought into his defense-first style, and  went 43-15-11 to finish second in the Western Conference.

The Blues won their first Central Division title since the 1999-2000 season. They finished with 49 wins and 109 points, the most in either category since that season.  It’s the fourth time Hitchcock has been a Jack Adams finalist; he finished second in 1997 and third in 1998 and 1999, all with Dallas.

Jonathan Quick was strong in net throughout as the Los Angeles Kings beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 in the opener of a Western Conference semifinal series on Saturday night.

Slava Voynov scored for his first point of the postseason, Matt Greene scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Dustin Penner added an empty-netter for the Kings.

David Perron opened the scoring on a deflection in the first period for the Blues, the No. 2 seed in the West and the top remaining seed in the conference.

St. Louis also lost the opener of the first round in double overtime against the Sharks, before recovering to win four straight.

The #2 seeded St. Louis Blues, coming off a 4-1 Western Conference Quarterfinals win over the San Jose Sharks, will face the #8 seeded Los Angeles Kings, who are coming off a 4-1 series win over the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks.  The Blues were 1-2-1 against the Kings this season, with the most recent game in Los Angeles on March 22, a 1-0 shootout win in which Jonathan Quick outdueled Brian Elliott. Many expect those type of games in this series.

The Blues and Kings were two of just four teams in the NHL who allowed fewer than 200 goals. In fact, they are 1-2 in goals allowed (Blues-165, LA-179). Blues captain David Backes expects a battle from the Kings. “Watch any of their games against the Canucks. They play hard every shift, they’ve got four lines that are willing to invest in the game,” Backes said. “Obviously their goaltending’s fantastic as well. We like those types of games, those one-goal games that are low-scoring. That’s our style. Hopefully we find some ways to solve Jonathan Quick. He’s a good goaltender.”

AUDIO Ken Hitchcock on the upcoming series (1:30)

Other Blues notes:

Backes, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins and Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings were named as finalists for this year’s Frank J. Selke Trophy, an annual award given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” The winner is selected by a vote of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and will be announced at the 2012 NHL Awards Show, June 20 at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock announced that goalie Jaroslav Halak will not be available for the first two games of the upcoming series. Halak was injured in Game 2 against the Sharks.

St. Louis Blues goaltender Brian Elliott (R) raises his arms as the buzzer sounds while Alex Pietrangelo skates in to celebrate their 3-1 win. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Jamie Langenbrunner and David Perron scored goals 45 seconds apart in the third period, Andy McDonald added an empty-netter with 38.2 seconds left, and the Blues eliminated the Sharks with a 3-1 win Saturday night at Scottrade Center, winning the best-of-seven series 4-1.

Langenbrunner’s 34th career playoff goal tied the game 1-1 at 11:16 of the third period when he knocked Scott Nichol’s shot, that wasn’t handled by Sharks goalie Antti Niemi. 45 seconds later, Perron tied the game when he was able to deflect Alex Pietrangelo’s shot from the point. Niemi stopped 24 shots. Brian Elliott came up with his third win of the series, stopping 26 shots.

McDonald backhanded an empty-netter after the Sharks pulled Niemi late as the Blues sealed their first playoff series victory in 10 years.

See more photos of the Blues playoff win.