Kings Rally To Defeat Ducks

The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks "faced-off" in the always much-anticipated "Freeway" rivalry at Staples Center on Saturday.

The Ducks were playing without an injured Corey Perry, one of their premiere players and also missing was a retired Teemu Selanne. The game took on a strange feel without Selanne out there on the ice. He was such a force for many years and one of the greatest poster-boys that the NHL ever had. Selanne retired after the Ducks lost to the Kings in the playoffs last season.

The Kings have had to come from behind to win some games this season and that's just what they did this time, winning in the five minute overtime 3-2 on Jarret Stoll's power play goal on a great feed from Justin Williams with 10 seconds left in the penalty. Stoll tipped the puck through the legs of goalie Frederik Andersen.

Stoll's game-winner was his first goal of the season in which he rejoiced.

"Today, we came out and we were physical and we were getting pucks in deep," Stoll said. "There were points where we needed to be a little better, but Quick came up big when we needed him to. We had some big penalty kills and a big power play goal in the third."

The Kings shut down three of the Ducks power play opportunities and are now 8-1-2 with a perfect penalty kill.

This is the sixth time the Kings have played past regulation this season and the fifth straight game to go into overtime and the seventh of the season for the Ducks.

Anderson played great during a losing cause, stopping 34 of 37 shots. Jonathon Quick also had a stellar game, with 27 saves on 29 shots. The goalie-battle was a key variable in this contest.

In order to not let the Ducks win again, like they did three days earlier in Anaheim, the Kings wanted to control the pace of the game, so they came out of the gate playing very physical. Captain Dustin Brown led the way with 11 hits during the game.

One Ducks goal worth a mention was by sharp-shooter Ryan Kesler near the end of the second period. It was a spin-around circus shot from the right side that went top-shelf on a surprised and sprawled Quick giving the Ducks a 2-1 lead. A great goal but not enough to help their cause.

Kings coach Darryl Sutter gave his perspective after the game when asked by a reporter how nice this win was.

"Every win's nice. Every game is its own season," Sutter said. "We played just as well the last game as we did tonight (Kings shut-out in loss to Dallas Stars at home 2-0). So you got to score to win and you've got to keep the other team limited."