In Their First Meeting, Kings Beat Ducks, 3-2

The Mighty Ducks and the Kings went around and around in their first meeting Wednesday night at Anaheim Arena.

Forget hockey night in Orange County, this was Wednesday night at the fights, a test of wills that wound up looking like a backstreet rumble.

Pat Conacher’s goal with 52 seconds left in overtime gave the Kings a 3-2, victory.

The Ducks had several chances to win in the final seconds of regulation, but Steven King hit the post with one shot and King goalie Kelly Hrudey stopped a backhander by Troy Loney at the buzzer.

A sellout crowd of 16,858 seemed happy watching the fights, which kept pace with the number of goals through two periods. That is to say there were four fights.

After two periods, referee Dennis LaRue had handed out 25 penalties totaling 82 minutes, including a game misconduct to Todd Ewen of the Ducks.

Ewen seems bent on challenging Stu Grimson’s title as the Ducks’ enforcer. After two games, it’s tough to pick a winner. Each fought twice in the first two periods Wednesday.

Ewen fought King tough guy Warren Rychel a little less than a minute into the game. Ewen, a member of the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens last season, tangled with Rychel’s predecessor, Marty McSorley, in the first period of the Ducks’ exhibition opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

Later, Ewen squared off against Justin Hocking.

By the end of the first period, the Ducks led, 2-0, on goals by Joe Sacco and Tim Sweeney. Sweeney’s goal, at 15:06, came with the Ducks holding a two-man advantage.

The Kings rallied on second-period goals by Kevin Brown and Charlie Huddy.

Hockey Notes

King owner Bruce McNall on the sight of a sellout crowd for an exhibition game at Anaheim Arena: “This is very satisfying for Wayne (Gretzky) and myself. I remember there were nights when we were drawing 9 or 10,000 and now they’ve (almost) sold out two exhibition games. If nothing else happens in my life, I think we’ve at least succeeded in selling hockey to Southern California.” . . . McNall and Laker owner Jerry Buss are attempting to build a new arena, and McNall said an announcement could be made within a few months. He said they are exploring sites ranging from the Forum/Hollywood Park area to Hawthorne to downtown to Burbank. “I feel jealous,” McNall said of Anaheim Arena. “I feel like Al Davis looking for a gravel pit.”