Rivalry Finally Holds Real Meaning

Maybe the road to the Stanley Cup will lead through Southern California this spring -- and not because the Detroit Red Wings’ plane got diverted here.

The Kings, who expect to make the playoffs every year, and the Mighty Ducks, hoping to revive their fading memories of postseason play, played a spirited and meaningful game Thursday at Staples Center that might be remembered as a turning point for one or both.

With a sellout crowd of 18,118 aware of the implications of every shot and every save, the Kings rallied for a 5-4 victory on Bryan Smolinski’s power-play goal with 2:29 left in the third period, extending their supremacy over the Ducks to 6-0-3 dating to March 24, 2001. The Santa hats worn by some fans in the stands said this was December, but the intensity and pace suggested it was a playoff game.

Thursday’s game represented everything good about hockey and about each of these teams, promising the birth of a real rivalry based on competitiveness and not merely geography.

You want drama? How about the Ducks rallying from a 3-1 deficit to take a 4-3 lead at 7:15 of the third period?

Resilience? How about the Kings pulling even with 8:12 left on a goal by Brad Chartrand, who had his back to the net when he redirected a shot by Jaroslav Modry past J.S. Giguere? And Smolinski, the first to admit he had a disappointing second half last season and hasn’t exactly burned things up this season, shoveling home a bouncing puck to touch off roars seldom heard in the cavernous arena?

“If I’d missed that one, I probably would have been traded right away,” Smolinski said.

So often in the last few seasons, the two teams were headed in opposite directions when they met and one or the other was in too deep a hole for the two points to have really meant much. That wasn’t the case Thursday.

“They really came out and took it to us at the start of the game and we were scrambling and not playing our game,” Duck winger Patric Kjellberg said. “We started doing that in the third and that’s the way we should have started the game.

“They were really aggressive, and now we know that’s the type of hockey we have to play.”

Paul Kariya’s prolonged, from-the-gut scream of exhilaration and relief after he beat King goalie Felix Potvin to the glove side on a third-period breakaway to cut the King lead to 3-2 said everything anyone needed to know about the emotional temperature on the ice. And just when the Ducks seem to have assumed control of the game, the Kings wrenched it back. Ziggy Palffy took a hit but got the puck to Modry, whose shot from the blue line was somehow redirected by Chartrand past Giguere to tie the game at 4-4.

“It truly is a character-builder,” Chartrand said. “You’re going to have these games in the year where we had it going great and we faltered. But to actually pick up shows what kind of team we have. It took quite a bit of momentum on their part to get that lead, and to get it back, on our part it took a lot of character.”

Each of their three games this season has been that way. With any luck, every game they play against each other -- and everyone else -- will have playoff implications. That would be the best thing to happen to the NHL since a tearful Wayne Gretzky headed south of the border to join the Kings in 1988 and sparked a hockey renaissance that led to the Ducks’ birth in 1993.

Both teams are in the top eight in the Western Conference, flying above .500 and clawing to stay there in a conference that never affords an easy night. Thursday’s game was a good reference point for both teams to measure how far they’ve come -- and how great a distance they must still travel to legitimately challenge the teams above them.

“I really respect the way they play,” Duck General Manager Bryan Murray said of the Kings, who ended his team’s five-game winning streak. “They’re a hard team to play.”

The Kings certainly don’t give up much against the Ducks. Their victory Thursday vaulted them past the Ducks and into seventh place in the West -- for now.

“I’ve never played in a game like this,” Duck rookie Kurt Sauer said. “But now I know for me, personally, I have to play better. This is a tough loss.”

The Kings are still deeper than the Ducks, better able to play a physical game without losing their discipline, and steadier on defense. They’ve gotten timely contributions from many sources, reducing the offensive load Palffy and Jason Allison must carry. But the Ducks aren’t much behind, if at all.

Steve Rucchin, too long underestimated when he had Kariya and Teemu Selanne on his wings, is enjoying his finest NHL season. Youngsters such as Sauer and Stanislav Chistov have made significant impacts and play with poise.

The Ducks brought out the best in the Kings on Thursday. The Kings brought out the best in the Ducks. Hockey fans can’t ask for more.

“We thought we’d be improved,” Murray said. “We thought we’d be deeper and that we had more speed and skill and as long as they called obstruction, we’d benefit.

“I like where we are. I’d like to be higher in the standings, sure. But our attitude now around the whole organization is that we’re on the way up.”

So, apparently, are the Kings. Which can only mean things are looking up for local hockey fans.