Freeway face-off: Ducks orange jerseys blind Kings

Period one was probably one goalie Jonathan Quick and the rest of the team would like back. (Come to think of it they’d probably want the whole game back.) Sure, we smacked them up pretty hard, leading in hits 5-1, 22-6 and finally 27-10. But by the end the Ducks had scored twice and kept the Kings scoreless. The Ducks began on the offensive, and while the a Kings seemed to be up to the defensive challenge, they were reduced to dump and chase any time the puck went anywhere near their offensive zone, and couldn’t get any good chances early on.

The Ducks struck first (and often), when a bad turnover from Vincent Lecavalier led to David Perron and Ryan Getzlaf basically alone in the neutral zone, wristing a shot behind Quick. Milan Lucic took his first of four penalties of the night at 10:12, which the Kings managed to kill not so easily, but couldn’t counteract the momentum the Ducks had. The Ducks capitalized again about a minute after the penalty expired. There was an automatic review of the goal, as it looked like David Perron kicked the goal in, but as there was no distinct kicking motion – what actually happened was Perron fell and slid the puck in on the end of his skates and followed into the net himself – the goal stood. Luke Schenn closed out the period for the Kings by accruing a delay of game penalty, in which the players didn’t leave the Kings zone. The fans and players left wanting a better second period.

Unfortunately, the second period wasn’t any better. The Kings were outshot 15-4, and out scored 2-1, making the a 3 goal 3rd period necessary to mount a successful comeback. The way the Kings were playing, that didn’t look good. Coach Sutter pulled Quick after Anaheim’s 3rd goal, 2:41 into the second, a wrister from Ryan Garbutt that beat Quick top shelf glove side. Jhonas Enroth seemed to breathe some life into an ailing Kings team, who finally notched a goal on the scoreboard on a power play. At 4:15 with Simon Despres in the box for hooking Kyle Clifford, Drew Doughty wound up his blast of a slap shot that Tyler Toffoli oh so helpfully tipped in past Gibson, who never stood a chance. The Ducks used their coaches challenge to try to overturn, citing offsides before the play, however they lost their timeout for no reason – the call on the ice stood. Toffoli’s 23rd goal of the season 51 games in matches his tally in the 76 games he played last season.

It was the only highlight of the period, as the Kings slipped back into their slumber soon afterwards. Anze Kopitar took a bad hit 8:27 in; Milan Lucic took offense and attempted revenge upon Josh Manson, all the while play was continuing up in the a Kings zone. The fight finally distracted enough of the refs for play to be called dead. Lucic ended up with two penalties, one for roughing and one for cross checking. Manson got the single minor for roughing and the Ducks scored on the resulting power play. Kings fans had a bright spot to focus on (more than our two Stanley Cup Championships) with a Bob Miller update; he sent us a photo from his hospital bed where he’s making a marvelous recovery. (Hopefully he wasn’t watching this game!)

The third was more of the same. Some penalties in which not much resulted. Lucic smashed as many Ducks into the boards as he could (final hit tally was 50-27). Dwight King managed to smash two Ducks into the boards at the same time. Though while the Kings outshot the Ducks 12-2, they just couldn’t score. Jeff Carter had the best chance on a mini breakaway, but when even Carter can’t snipe a goal in, you know it’s not your night. Towards the end of the period bodies were smashed up against the net, Gibson was desperately trying to find the puck and sticks were flying everywhere. Lucic threw his stick on Gibson’s back after the whistle blew, clearly done with the game. He took a high sticking penalty moments after that, and even a Getzlaf penalty 1:25 into that penalty couldn’t bring the Kings any closer to a goal. A Tanner Pearson penalty with 3:42 remaining finally killed any momentum to mount an offensive push to end the game. Alec Martinez did manage to score a pretty soft goal with 24 seconds remaining, but it wasn’t enough. The Kings fell 4-2, and are set for a 7 game, 2 week Grammy road trip.

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