Mighty Ducks Lose Ugly One

The Kings won Game 1 of the Freeway Series On Ice, rebounding from a lackluster start to beat the Mighty Ducks, 4-1, in front of a sellout crowd of 17,174 Friday at the Pond.

Game 2 is at the Forum tonight at 5.

Sean Pronger had scored his team-leading fourth goal of the exhibition season to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead 8:59 into the game.

So much for the Duck highlight. Anaheim’s momentum evaporated after only 10 minutes, and they could not recapture it. The Ducks seemed to lose their way not long after Pronger’s goal and Peter LeBoutillier’s decisive victory over Doug Zmolek in a fight midway through the first period.

“We had 17,174 fans come to see our new team,” Duck Coach Pierre Page said. “I wish we could have invited them to our practices because we’ve been practicing our guts out.

“But we spent a lot of the week with a lot of distractions. We had a lot of meetings. [Friday], we met with Brian Burke [NHL senior vice president] about our trip to Japan. The day before, we met with Disney’s Japan expert. We had another meeting about Japan earlier in the week.

“I think we looked like a team that had its mind on Japan.”

Keeping to his vow to be unpredictable, Page shifted feisty defenseman David Karpa to a forward line. There were two reasons behind the move.

First, Page continues to be intrigued by the play of several young defensemen and wanted to get a better look at rookies Ruslan Salei and Pavel Trnka. Page gave them another chance to make the team Friday.

“We’re trying to find ways to look at the young guys,” Page said. “It’s probably down to those two for the last spots. Down the road, those two might step ahead of someone.”

Page also hoped light a fire under Karpa, who played on the wing with the Quebec Nordiques when Page was the coach and general manager there in the early 1990s.

“I played him up front in Quebec, so it’s not something new,” Page said. “He’s a very good forechecker. I think Karpa’s always physically intense, but we have to make sure he’s hockey intense, too.”

Said Karpa: “It’s something different. We’ll see what happens. I’ll get some hits in and get my feet moving. There will be a little more action.”

The switch failed to produce dramatic results for the Ducks, but that was not Karpa’s fault at game’s end.

As in past exhibitions, the Ducks hurt themselves by taking penalties and leaving goaltender Guy Hebert almost defenseless at times.

The Kings’ first two goals came via the power play, and Hebert had no chance to make the save on either.

Rookie center Donald MacLean accepted a pass through the slot from Eric Belanger and scored on a one-timer before Hebert could move to cover the left post. The power-play goal enabled the Kings to tie the Ducks, 1-1, at the 18:40 mark of the first period.

Ray Ferraro gave the Kings a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal off a deflection at the 4:17 mark of the second period. MacLean then scored his second of the game, an even-strength goal at 13:02 of the second.

Olli Jokinen scored the Kings’ fourth goal at 4:23 of the third period.

Goalie Frederic Chabot stopped 24 of 25 shots to win his second start for the Kings, who signed him as a free agent Sept. 4. The Kings outshot the Ducks, 34-25.

“It’s an exhibition game,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “I thought everybody played pretty hard. We were rusty at the start and it took a while to get going, but overall, I thought it was a pretty good win.”