ANAHEIM — The Kings strolled into Honda Center on Tuesday night with the opportunity to clinch a playoff berth, but the Ducks had other ideas as they upended their cross-region rivals, 3-1, to capture this season’s penultimate Freeway Faceoff.
The Kings saw their three-game winning streak come to an end while the Ducks got the ball rolling on a modest two-game points streak. The Nashville Predators clinched a playoff berth with an overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets, leaving the Kings and Vegas Golden Knights still in search of a solid spot in the postseason.
The Kings’ chance to avenge two straight first-round playoff losses to Edmonton is at risk. Vegas is one point behind the Kings for third place in the Pacific Division with a game in hand.
Frank Vatrano, Alex Killorn and Trevor Zegras each broke out goal-scoring celebrations for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál made his fifth consecutive start, moving to 2-2-1 in those games on the strength of 36 saves.
Akil Thomas scored the Kings’ lone goal. Cam Talbot stopped 24 pucks.
The Ducks pulled away with 14:10 to play when Zegras stripped Jordan Spence at the red line and strode ahead for an unassisted goal, his fifth of the season. Zegras nearly scored again with under 7:23 remaining when his spectacular skyward deflection dinged the crossbar, with the Kings drawing no nearer.
A mere 82 seconds into the final period, the Ducks appeared to take their first lead on their first power play of the night, but Killorn’s redirection goal was disallowed after a coach’s challenge determined that the Ducks entered the zone offside.
In something of a “puck don’t lie” moment, Killorn scored 29 seconds later. He gave the puck up for Cam Fowler at the left point, received it back and curled into the high slot for a wrist shot under the bar for his 18th goal of the campaign.
The second frame yielded no goals and only one high-danger chance in the period. Perhaps the strongest late-period play was Matt Roy’s blast on net followed by his screen and tip of Adrian Kempe’s subsequent shot attempt.
Through 40 minutes, the two sides were knotted at one, just as they had been after 20.
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The Ducks found an equalizer with 2:14 left in the opening salvo. Viktor Arvidsson’s clearing attempt got gobbled at the blue line by Ryan Strome, leaving Arvidsson, among others, out of position as the puck moved to Radko Gudas and then a wide-open Vatrano at the net front. He smacked the puck into Talbot’s pad and then into the wide open left side of the net for his team-topping 33rd goal of the season.
That came on the heels off a pair of near misses after Olen Zellweger hit the post and a golden opportunity off a two-on-one was thwarted by Drew Doughty. Troy Terry waited out Talbot near the right post before sliding the puck across to Killorn for a one-timer with Talbot scrambling to recover as Doughty slid to the ice to block the shot and foil a near-certain goal.
There was no doubt about the second career goal for Thomas, who has played sparingly but impressively since joining the Kings four games ago. Just 5:50 into the contest, Trevor Lewis chipped the puck into the Ducks’ zone and crashed the net, leaving a stuff-in attempt inside the blue paint for Thomas to push home amid four defenders.
More to come on this story.
