LOS ANGELES—Pierre-Luc Dubois and Trevor Moore scored in the shootout as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3–2 on Saturday night, Feb. 24.
Leo Carlsson scored for the Ducks in the shootout.
Kevin Fiala, who had a goal and an assist, could not convert in the third round. It was up to David Rittich to stop Alex Killorn to preserve the victory for the Kings, who have nine straight victories over their Southern California rivals and have won six of eight games since the All-Star break.
It was only Los Angeles’ second win in seven shootouts this season.
“We haven’t been great at shootouts all year, so that was big for confidence. And I think, overall, deserved the two points,” said Adrian Kempe, who had a pair of assists to extend his points streak against the Ducks to 10 games. “Maybe wasn’t our best performance overall, but it was a big win. And especially to get it in OT slash shootout was good for the confidence moving forward in that situation.”
The win also tied the Kings with the Edmonton Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division with 68 points. The teams play Monday night in Edmonton.
“That was huge. Every point matters right now. We dug ourselves a bit of a hole there in January, so we need to take what we can get now,” said defenseman Matt Roy.
Drew Doughty also had a goal and an assist and Rittich stopped 22 shots for the win.
Jakob Silfverberg and Sam Carrick scored for Anaheim while John Gibson made 48 saves.
“The first two periods had strong play from both teams. We both had zone time. In the third period they picked it up and had more energy than we did,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said.
Los Angeles outshot Anaheim 50–24 and scored two power-play goals.
“We generated 50 shots, plenty of chances. Their goalie played very well. But having said that, our goalie had to play well,“ Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. ”Not as many chances, but they had some real looks off the rush that we didn’t like, but the goalie was there to make the saves.”
The teams traded power-play goals in the first period.
Silfverberg opened the scoring at 9:33 with a shot from the left faceoff circle to snap an eight-game goal drought. It also marked the first time in seven home games that the Kings had allowed a power-play goal.
Fiala evened it six minutes later with a high shot from the left faceoff circle that Gibson wasn’t able to snag with his glove.
Carrick put the Ducks back up 2–1 at 9:08 of the second period, when he scored a short-handed goal on a tip-in to complete a 2-on-1 rush.
Doughty made it 2–all at 14:24 on a wrist shot from the point for his sixth power-play goal of the season. It also marked the third time in six games the Ducks have allowed at least two power-play goals.
Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (C) celebrates his goal against the Anaheim Ducks with right wing Adrian Kempe (L) and left wing Kevin Fiala during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 2024. (Ryan Sun/AP Photo)
Los Angeles’ Mikey Anderson was out of the lineup due to an upper-body injury. The defenseman was injured during the third period of Thursday’s 4–1 loss to Nashville and is week-to-week, according to Hiller.
By Joe Reedy
