Familiar Style Works Nicely for the Ducks

The Mighty Ducks were King wanna-bes at the start of the season, trying to incorporate more offense into their boring dump-and-chase system. And the Kings? They peered at the Ducks and wanted to be more like them after the Kings’ own disaster last season. Bigger, stronger and tougher.

Yet, role reversal hasn’t been working so well for either team with the Ducks and Kings combining for five victories in 15 games before Sunday’s meeting at the Forum.

At least the Ducks could go back to their punch-the-clock, working-class style and find some success, defeating the Kings, 3-2, before a sellout crowd of 16,005. Duck Coach Ron Wilson benched two defensive laggards--Anatoli Semenov and Valeri Karpov, who have a combined plus-minus rating of minus-15--and went with grit and grinders.

It is the third consecutive time the Ducks (4-5) have defeated the Kings (2-5-1), having outscored them, 10-4, in their final two meetings last season. The Ducks climbed into a sixth-place tie with Toronto in the Western Conference and the Kings are in 10th place, one point ahead of Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Duck defenseman Tom Kurvers had the game-winner with 2:57 remaining, breaking the 2-2 tie with a 50-footer from just inside the blue line up the middle of the slot.

The play started with the faceoff in the left circle. Anaheim center Shaun Van Allen won the draw cleanly from Pat Conacher and Peter Douris got off a quick pass from the edge of the left-wing circle to Kurvers. Kurvers beat King goaltender Kelly Hrudey down low on the glove side after the puck went through King defenseman Alexei Zhitnik’s legs.

“Everything was perfect,” said Kurvers of his third goal of the season. “It was a perfect draw, a great pass. When those things happen, there’s no way the checking forward can get to that part of the ice in time.”

Said Hrudey: “We had a miscommunication and I didn’t even see it. We shouldn’t have. I should have let him (Zhitnik) know not to cross over. I should have told him to get out of the way.”

Conacher blamed himself. “I lost the draw at the end,” he said. “I made the mistake and it went in. They made a bang-bang play and in the net it goes.”

Said Wayne Gretzky, who had one assist: “They get two seconds and they get a nice goal. And we have to claw and scratch and fight for everything.”

In attempting to tie the game, the Kings didn’t exactly test goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov in the final stages, putting only one shot on goal after Kurvers scored and none after Hrudey was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:28 remaining.

Said Wilson: “Being down, 2-0, and having to come back as well as having back-to-back games, it tired the Kings out. They had no legs at the end.”

The Ducks led, 2-0, going into the third on goals by Tim Sweeney and Bob Corkum, who both scored their first of the season. Corkum assisted on Sweeney’s goal.

In the third, the Kings came back with goals by Jari Kurri on the power play (third of the season) at 2:19 and Mike Donnelly (first) at 4:20. “I was real happy with the way the team responded after that goal. We didn’t go in a shell and we didn’t panic,” said Corkum, who led the Ducks with 23 goals last season.

And the Kings left Sunday talking wistfully about how an upcoming four-game trip might change their psyche, if not provide a couple of victories.

“We’ve been in a goat trail for the last eight months,” Conacher said. “Going from home to the workout place, from home to the rink. It’ll be good to get out on the road.”

King Notes

With defensemen dropping daily, the Kings called up rookie Rob Cowie from their affiliate in Phoenix. Cowie made his NHL debut and wore No. 77. King Coach Barry Melrose does not think Rob Blake (groin strain), Michel Petit (groin strain), Sean O’Donnell (bruised sternum) and left wing Eric Lacroix (sprained knee) will be ready for Tuesday’s game at St. Louis.