Comeback/Cardiac Kings Strike Back, Beat Ducks 4-3 in OT
- Updated: November 8, 2017
(Featured photo credit to Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. The Kings give up two or more goals early in the game and look like they are out of it. Then slowly, they start waking up and applying the pressure as the game goes on, only the tie things up in the third period and then get to overtime to either, A – lose in OT or in a shootout but salvage a point, or B), end up winning the game in the extra period. If you have heard this before, then you a not alone as this was the exact same scenario that happened in the previous Kings’ game against Nashville, but with a happier ending. After the Kings were down 2-0, and 3-1 during this season’s first “Freeway Faceoff” battle between these heated rivals, the Kings came back to defeat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in overtime with Nick Shore getting the game-winner after a 2 on 1 pass from that mysterious masked man that wears number 23.
(Okay seriously! Someone, please tell me! Who IS this masked man wearing #23??? The man’s a beast! – photo created by David J. Villa)
This method of starting the game slow and then turning on the engines to make an epic comeback later in the game was one of the many things the Kings were known and feared for from 2012 to 2014, (especially during that Stanley Cup winning 2014 playoff run), and in parts of the 2015-16 season. Since then, it had disappeared and the Kings were down and out after just being behind by one or two goals, and this is even if that game was still only in the first period. Well, not anymore. If what we have been witnessing so far this season is correct, (and the season is still very young), then yes my Kings’ brothers and sisters. The “Comeback Kings” aka, “The Cardiac Kings” (depending on your perspective and stress levels) are back! So get those anxiety pills and defibrillator’s ready, because it’s starting to look like that this 2017-18 season is going to be a wild one for us Kings’ fans!
The Ducks drew (not Doughty) blood first in the first period at 6:01, when Jared Boll scored his first of the season, (and first ever as a Duck, ending a scoring drought of 61 games that includes his final remaining games with the Columbus Blue Jackets before coming to Anaheim), after a rebound from a wrap-around by defenseman Brandon Montour that left Jonathan Quick out of position to make it 1-0.
Tempers then flared (no surprise there) after Kings’ rookie defensemen Kurtis MacDermid destroyed Ducks’ forward Ondrej Kase with an open-ice hit without the puck being anywhere close to them, which got him an interference penalty and a game misconduct, (served by Mike Amadio). Kase had to be helped up and led to the dressing room with an upper-body injury. The Kings successfully killed off the 5-minute penalty but to only have Sami Vatanen scored his first of the season at 12:26 after a poor turnover by Tanner Pearson and Jake Muzzin to make it 2-0 Ducks. Jedi Master (sorry Jesse Cohen but he is indeed a Jedi) Jonathan Quick kept the Kings in the game after the Ducks almost scored while shorthanded after a Kevin Bieksa slashing penalty but Quick was there to the rescue with a #VintageQuick sliding blocker save.
(photo credit to the Houston Chronicle)
Shortly after at 16:58, Captain Anze Kopitar scored his team-leading 8th goal with a wrist shot that slid through Ducks’ goaltender John Gibson‘s five-hole, after a power forward like drive-by rookie Alex Iaffalo, who’s pass snuck by two Duck defenders right up the middle and right onto “Kopi’s” stick in the slot to make it 2-1. The period ended with the Ducks having the lead and most of the momentum by outshooting the Kings 17 to 10.
The battle got even more heated in the second period when Derek Forbort and Corey Perry started roughing each other up. Quick even got into it with his longtime nemesis Perry in the crease, which led to referee’s handing out roughing penalties like how Oprah used to give out free cars!
(The ref carrying the remains of Forbort’s stick after it was tomahawk chopped. No call on the play – Photo Credit to Augie Loya)
A little later, Perry then got a delay of game penalty but the Kings couldn’t capitalize on the power-play and Anaheim made them pay for it when Richard Rakell scored his 6th at 14:52 with a blast from the point that Iafallo accidentally deflected into his own net to make it 3-1 Anaheim. After all that, the Kings were done. The End… end of story… but wait! They are the comeback/cardiac Kings again remember! Shortly after the Rakell goal, Kings’ 4th liner, “Double-A” Andy Andreoff created a spark to light a fire under the Kings’ butts by getting into a fight against Boll and taking him out, right in front of the Kings’ bench.
(photo credit to the associated press)
Inspired and with the clock ticking down to the end of the 2nd period, Swedish phenom “El Kempe/The Kempe Kid” Adrian Kempe scored his 7th at 19:01 from a severely sharp angle and into an unprotected net after a beautiful no-look, behind the back pass by Pearson, that tricked Gibson to drop and fall out of position to make it 3-2. This play has to be seen to be believed!
(Photo Credit to Augie Loya)
With confidence and full momentum on their side, the Kings dominated the Ducks in the 3rd period, (having the Kings dominate in the 3rd periods of games has now become a common pattern so far this young season), by bombarding their net with attack after attack. After Nick Ritchie was forced to serve a too many men penalty on the Ducks, that mysterious masked man wearing number 23 struck again by scoring his 7th with a one-timer on the power-play at 5:49, after a slick ‘stick on stick’ pass by Iafallo to tie things up 3-3! The Kings continued to attack at full speed and from all angles when the masked man mysteriously appeared to have scored again after a great set-up by Drew Doughty to give the Kings the lead, but the goal was waved off after a video review when it was revealed that Doughty had been off-side when the Kings entered the offensive zone. Brooks Laich, (by the way, did anyone else know that Laich is married to Dancing with the Stars Champion and actress from films such as Rock of Ages and the Footloose remake, Julianne Hough??? I had no idea until recently!), seemed to have finally scored his first goal of the season and as a King, (hell it would’ve been his first point period!), when he banged in a rebound to make it 4-3 for the Kings, but that goal was called off as well when Gibson’s helmet fell off before the puck went into the net. The Kings’ fans that invaded the pond where not pleased by these disallowed goals. Shaken from the play, Gibson was helped to the back following the NHL’s concussion protocol and was replaced by backup goaltender Ryan Miller, (and I have to admit that calling Miller a backup goalie just sounds strange).
(photo credit to nhl.com)
After the Duck’s Josh Manson decided he had enough of the mysteriously masked man wearing number 23 by getting a penalty for cross-checking him, the Kings almost scored to win it all in the power-play, when Miller made a brilliant save off of a completely unprotected Tyler Toffoli, dead bang in the slot with a 1:27 left to go in the 3rd. The period ended with the Kings outshooting the Ducks 17 to 6.
With overtime, both the Kings and the Ducks received a point each, but it was the Kings that earned the extra point when Nick Shore, (yes I repeat, Nick Shore), scored the overtime game-winner with a wrister for his 2nd goal of the season at 3:51 from a rushing 2 on 1 pass by the force of nature that is the masked man wearing number 23. LA Kings 4 Anaheim Ducks 3. Game over.
(Shore with the game winner in OT – Photo Credit to Augie Loya)
The Ducks are without Captain Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Cam Fowler and Patrick Eaves with injuries, while Kase and Gibson received knocks in this game. The Kings are still without Jeff Carter, Marian Gaborik, and Kyle Clifford, while both Alec Martinez and Anze Kopitar received knocks in this game as well. Kopitar was forced out of the game due to a concussion spotter in the crowd calling in that Kopitar needed to be evaluated immediately in the quiet room after a collision with Montour, but he returned to the game after passing all the tests. Martinez headed to the back hunched over in pain after getting leveled by Manson, but he too also returned to the game. LA Kings’ Insider Jon Rosen revealed that Martinez was having issues staying up on his feet while he was getting checked out in the back. Yikes.
(Photo Credit to Augie Loya)
Dustin Brown…err…um…I mean the masked man wearing number 23, finished the game with a goal and an assist, (plus a goal that was called off), a plus-1 and 25:04 of total ice time, the most he has played since 2007! Drew Doughty also broke his regular-season high of total ice time with 35:31. Also according to Insider Jon Rosen, Andy Andreoff was praised in the locker room by head coach John Stevens for his takedown of Jared Boll and for his strong performance in this road game against a tough division rival, (and somewhere in SoCal, “The Hipcheck” Scott Cahill is doing cartwheels of joy, while Emily Redenbach is cursing her customized voodoo doll of Andreoff for not working properly).
Jonathan Quick finished with his 9th victory of the season and with 33 saves out of 36 for a .917 save percentage. John Gibson made 30 saves out of 33, but Ryan Miller ended up with the loss after making 9 saves out of 10 in Gibson’s absence. The Ducks have now lost four games in a row but have received two points due to two of those games being overtime losses. The Kings improved their record to 11-2-2 and 24 points and play against the Tampa Bay Lightning next, who have an identical record to the Kings, and who may or may not have former Kings’ goalie Peter Budaj in net for that game, this Thursday at the Staples Center.
So until next time my Kings’ brothers and sisters, I have been JD Stylz and I am out of here!
GO KINGS GO!!!
(Photo Credit to Augie Loya)
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time
Related Posts
About Jeff Duarte
