Ducks Too Hot for Kings

Guy Hebert was sharper than Jamie Storr. Vitaly Vishnevski picked his spots better than Rob Blake. Mike Leclerc was grittier around the net than Jozef Stumpel. Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne shined brighter than Luc Robitaille and Ziggy Palffy.

And the Mighty Ducks were significantly better than the Kings, taking a 4-0 victory from their Southland rivals Sunday before a sellout crowd of 17,174, the first sellout this season at the Arrowhead Pond.

“We’ve talked about ways of making our team better,” Hebert said. “Now we need to step up our game. Obviously, Paul and Teemu stepped up their games. Leclerc was great on the power play and all the other guys played well. It was a solid performance--not only by the superstars, but the supporting cast did its job too.”

The 11th-place Ducks ended a 0-3-1-1 winless streak and moved within five points of the ninth-place Kings in the Western Conference standings. But one measly victory to begin December will not erase a 2-8-3-1 November. The Kings are 1-3-2 in their last six.

It wasn’t as if the Ducks dominated the Kings from start to finish. Hebert’s strong play in net in his first game back after being sidelined for four consecutive games because of a sore left shoulder kept the game scoreless.

But the game turned when Blake, the King captain, took a selfish penalty for high-sticking Duck center Samuel Pahlsson at 17:19 of the second period.

Leclerc redirected Kariya’s slap shot from the blue line past Storr for the go-ahead goal at 18:01. Then, with defenseman Mathieu Schneider in the penalty box for cross-checking Tony Hrkac at 19:16, Oleg Tverdovsky put the Ducks ahead, 2-0, with 19 seconds left in the period.

Andy McDonald’s first NHL goal 4:15 into the third period and Kariya’s shorthanded score at 8:02, after swiping the puck from a flat-footed Schneider and lifting a backhander over Storr to cap a breakaway, provided added confidence-boosters for the Ducks.

Hebert’s shutout was the 27th of his career, his first this season and his second against the Kings since 1998-99. The victory gave Hebert an 8-3-2 record and a 1.90 goals-against average against the Kings since ‘98-99.

“You can tell right away when he’s on his game,” Kariya said of Hebert. “He’s very aggressive. He makes himself big. That’s exactly what we need right now.”

The Ducks seemed to feed off Hebert’s play early, particularly after his save on Nelson Emerson’s breakaway moments after a King power play ended midway through the first period.

“The only way to beat a goalie playing well is to make sure he doesn’t see the puck,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We screened the goal, but we didn’t screen the goalie and they did.”

No one was more effective around the net than Leclerc, who had a game-high seven shots and always seemed to be buzzing in front of Storr. His goal was his career-best ninth. He also helped free Tverdovsky for his fourth this season, putting up a road block in front of Storr.

With Storr anticipating a point-blank shot from Selanne from the left faceoff circle, the Duck winger slipped a cross-ice pass to Tverdovsky in the right circle. Storr, caught too far out of his net, couldn’t get past Leclerc and failed to stop Tverdovsky’s shot.

Murray said the penalties to Blake and Schneider that set up the Duck power-play goals “were questionable” and he might have had a point about Schneider’s cross check on Hrkac.

Blake claimed he didn’t touch Pahlsson after delivering a tough, but legal hip check.

However, TV replays indicated Blake cracked Pahlsson in the head with the end of his stick as he was skating away. The Ducks seized control after the penalty, scoring four times and outshooting the Kings, 16-12. With Vishnevski leading the way with physical play, the Ducks also got under the Kings’ skin by game’s end. Vishnevski had five hits to increase his league-leading total to 118.

Blake’s penalty was the sort of pivotal moment that had been going against the Ducks during their November nose dive. As with Hebert’s strong goaltending early in the game, the Ducks sensed the urgency after Blake’s penalty and applied a knockout blow.

Kariya and Selanne led the way. Kariya blasted the shot that Leclerc redirected into the net for the first power-play goal and Selanne found Tverdovsky alone for the second.

“The way things have been going lately, it’s nice to get out there and get a little offense going,” Kariya said. “We needed this game.”