Power Goes On, Ducks Turned Off

Yanic Perreault scored a power-play goal with 41.1 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Kings a 4-3 victory over the Mighty Ducks in a game the Kings made a lot tougher than it had to be Monday night before 12,671 at the Great Western Forum.

Perreault deflected in a shot by Mattias Norstrom to give the Kings a win after they had blown a two-goal third-period lead. The win was the Kings’ third in four games against the Ducks this season and their second in overtime at the Forum.

“I think we are happy with the overtime win. We started the third period really slow and they got back into the game,” said Perreault, who leads the Kings with 24 goals. “This was a big win for us going into [tonight]’s game at Phoenix.

“Every team is trying to get as many points as they can. . . . We knew it was going to be physical tonight. It’s going to be like this the rest of the year.”

For two periods the Mighty Ducks had tried to physically match up against the Kings and fallen short. But once the Ducks decided to play hockey, they were able to score two third-period goals to send the game into overtime.

Steve Rucchin and Teemu Selanne scored goals within the first 3:14 of the third period to help Anaheim erase a two-goal King lead.

After a scoreless first period, the Kings, who will play tonight at Phoenix, seemed to take control in the second when the game turned into more of a bar fight than a hockey game.

Craig Johnson, Philippe Boucher and Steve McKenna scored goals and goaltender Stephane Fiset was sharp.

But the Ducks began the third period with a lengthy power play, courtesy of double-minor penalties against the Kings’ Rob Blake.

Rucchin made the score, 3-2, when he was able to skate untouched from the right corner and beat Fiset from the slot at 1:16.

Then, after killing off Blake’s second penalty, the Kings made an error near their own zone, and Selanne made them pay with his league-high 42nd goal.

A pass by Norstrom was picked off by Selanne outside the blue line, and Norstrom then was avoided by the Duck right wing along the boards, leading to the goal from the right circle at 3:14.

Both teams began the game without several key players. The Ducks were missing Paul Kariya and Guy Hebert, and the Kings were without Jozef Stumpel, Luc Robitaille and Garry Galley.

The Kings scored first on Craig Johnson’s power-play goal at 6:08 of the second period, when Sandy Moger found him open after a line change. Johnson beat Duck goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov from the slot for his 13th goal of the season.

Anaheim tied the score, when Scott Young and Rucchin teamed up on a give-and-go short-handed goal at 9:44.

But the Kings regained their lead when McKenna deflected in a shot by Boucher for his first goal in 22 games, a power-play score at 10:13.

The Kings seemed to take a commanding lead late in the period when Boucher scored his first goal since Oct. 31 on a shot from the blue line at 17:47 for a 3-1 edge setting the stage for the third period.

Fiset had 26 saves and the Kings scored three power-play goals to raise their total to six over the last three games. Shtalenkov had 21 stops for the Ducks.

“It was an ugly win. It’s not one that you take out and look at how you played and want to play that way again,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “We didn’t create a lot going to our net. [The Ducks] weren’t really trying to do anything. The odd time Selanne would take it in, but it seemed that they were just concerned with banging it out of their zone.”