Kings’ Win Over Ducks Is Too Much

Go ahead, analyze this.

By the time Bryan Smolinski chipped in a rebound to give the Kings a 5-4 victory over the Ducks on Thursday, the 18,118 at Staples Center were fairly worn out. Sorting this mess was going to take time, for both teams.

The bottom line was easy. The Kings extended their unbeaten streak against the Ducks to nine games. The Ducks had their five game-winning streak ended.

Getting there was the hard part.

“I think we have a rivalry now,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said.

The Ducks were playing their second game in as many nights, short one defenseman, down two goals in the third period Thursday. Pack up the gear and warm up the bus.

Game over.

Only the Ducks don’t travel in those bottom-feeding circles any longer.

Paul Kariya ignited a three-goal outburst with a short-handed goal on breakaway fresh out of the penalty box -- where he had been serving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Stanislav Chistov, scoreless in the last 13 games, took a brilliant no-look pass from Adam Oates to score the go-ahead goal with the Ducks’ third power-play goal.

Break out the video gear, send out for pizza. A midnight-oil video session was on tap for the Kings, with the working title: What the Heck Happened?

Game over.

Only the Kings, as they have much of the season, found a way.

The Kings were without leading goal scorer, Adam Deadmarsh, who was out dizziness problems and were already saddled with second, third and fourth lines that were marked by inconsistency.

“Some times funny things happen,” King center Jason Allison said.

Brad Chartrand was the one doing the chuckling. He redirected a Jaroslav Modry shot to tie the score, 4-4, 11 minutes 48 seconds into the third period. It was Chartrand’s second goal of the game, his first goals since the second game of the season.

Smolinski then entered the picture. The Ducks were called for too many men on the ice with 2 minutes 55 seconds left.

It cost them.

Allison fired a rebound on net that Jean-Sebastien Giguere blocked only to have the puck plop at Smolinski’s feet. The Ducks’ defense, worn out from over work, were in no position to stop his goal at 17:31, which was a healthy sigh of relief for the Kings.

“That’s huge,” Smolinski said. “They had the game, but they were so tired. Obviously, they played last night. I think on the bench we kind of collected ourselves and kind of went back to playing our game.”

The Ducks’ defense was already spread thin because their top defenseman, Keith Carney, was out with a stomach virus, leaving them with only five healthy defensemen.

“When a guy like Carney goes out five minutes before the game, that’s a pretty big blow,” defenseman Niclas Havelid said. “But I thought we played pretty well with only five defensemen. But not having Carney changed the game a little bit.”

The Ducks were riding a winning streak that saw Giguere post three shutouts and go 237 minutes 7 seconds without allowing a goal, the third longest streak in NHL history.

They were testing their new-found abilities in the first of three consecutive games that the Ducks against Pacific Division teams and remained winless against the division (0-5-2).

Yet, there was honor in this defeat.

“Tonight, we got behind the eight ball pretty early,” Babcock said. “We had a couple of tough breaks on penalty calls.”