ANAHEIM — The Ducks grimaced first but laughed last as they took the season’s first Freeway Faceoff from the Kings, 5-4 in a shootout, despite never leading until the final horn on Friday afternoon at Honda Center.
The Ducks remained in first place in the Pacific Division and won for the fourth time in their last six outings, with each decision coming by a single goal. The Kings stumbled for the fourth time in five games, with their last seven games separated by just one goal.
Leo Carlsson led the way with a late tying goal and two assists. Chris Kreider, Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov each piled on a goal for the Ducks. Ville Husso wobbled en route to a win in his season debut, stopping 23 of 27 shots.
Alex Laferriere, Kevin Fiala, Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson scored for the Kings. Brandt Clarke and Brian Dumoulin had two assists apiece. Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves on a subpar night by his standards.
Though both goalies endured off nights, they were able to remain unblemished in overtime, with Husso summoning his best work late in the match. In the shootout, Troy Terry got the ball rolling after another active night on right wing, and Mason McTavish’s dastardly diligent deke slammed the door shut for the Ducks.
Though they needed a show-stopping save from Husso on Adrian Kempe late to reach overtime, the biggest push toward the extra frame came from Carlsson’s 13th goal, scored six-on-five. Jackson LaCombe circled behind the net and pushed the puck into the low slot for Carlsson’s score-leveling snapshot with 1:31 left.
The Ducks drew within striking distance with 9:18 remaining, when Mintyukov kicked the puck from skate to stick and lifted a shot from the slot for his first goal of the campaign.
Perry participated in 62 Freeway Faceoffs as a Duck against the Kings, and his first clash with the roles reversed saw him set a big screen to facilitate Edmundson’s goal off a long, sharp-angle slapshot for his second goal this season.
The Kings had pulled ahead by a goal for the third time on Friday with 3:23 elapsed in the third period by way of Turcotte’s first goal and first point of the season. A mesmerizing saucer pass from Clarke set Turcotte to deflect the puck upward and regain the lead.
At 2:02 of the second period, the Kings wedged a goal between a pair by the Ducks to leave the contest tied at two during the second intermission.
Nearly a full minute of sustained pressure from the Ducks, thanks in no small part to Jacob Trouba’s active shift, led to a fortuitous goal to knot the score anew at 11:02. Zellweger’s sharp-angle redirection from close range squeaked through Kuemper’s five hole for his fourth goal of the season.
Just 59 seconds earlier, a sloppy forward change left a tired top pairing to defend three Kings. Clarke found Quinton Byfield, who slipped the puck to Fiala for a short-side strike from the inner part of the left circle. It was Fiala’s ninth goal of the season and his first in six games since he snapped a three-game goal streak.
The Ducks had equalized nine minutes into the period and 10 seconds into their first power play. They shook off a 2-for-21 slump on the power play when Kreider owned Edmundson for position in the paint, boxing him out as Troy Terry delivered a smooth pass for a tip-in tally. It was Kreider’s 11th goal and sixth power-play goal of the year, albeit his first goal in seven games and his first power-play marker in 11.
A crisp opening frame saw the Ducks dash out to a 7-2 advantage in shots on goal, a gap the Kings would close and then some with nine unanswered shots. Late in the period, the Kings commenced the scoring.
Trouba was muscled past along the boards by Anže Kopitar to gain the zone and create a promising opportunity for Cody Ceci that required an aggressive challenge by Husso to make a skate save. Dumoulin’s pass to Trevor Moore for an attempt from high in the zone got the puck into the paint, where Trouba was unable to tie up Laferriere before he swept in his sixth goal of the season.
More to come on this story.