Kings Put Away the Ducks, 3-2

The rivalry between Southern California’s two NHL teams didn’t produce many fireworks during regulation Monday night, but the game had a dramatic ending, with the Kings defeating the Mighty Ducks, 3-2, in an extended shootout at Staples Center.

Defenseman Joe Corvo won it for the Kings when he beat the Duck goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the fifth round of the shootout. The Kings, who improved to 10-1-2 in their last 13 home games against the Ducks, also defeated Anaheim in a shootout in December.

“If I don’t score, that’s OK because there is still an opportunity behind me,” Corvo said. “But I wanted to win it ... there was a little pressure there.”

The Ducks received two regulation goals from rookie defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who had scored only twice before Monday. The King goals were scored by Alexander Frolov, who picked up his 18th of the season after sitting out the last three games because of illness, and Luc Robitaille, who has four goals in his last three games.

“The rivalry is definitely there,” Robitaille said about facing the Ducks, who will play the Kings two more times over the next week. “They had a slow start [this season], but they are playing real well now.... It’s a big, big week for both of our teams.”

The Ducks, who beat Florida, 1-0, Saturday, started slow against Kings on Monday. Thanks to a hooking penalty on Teemu Selanne, the Kings had their first power play less than two minutes into the game and pressured Giguere with a couple of solid scoring chances.

But Giguere kept the puck out of the net, which gave the Ducks time to get into an offensive flow. Selanne was the set-up man on the game’s first goal when he delivered a perfect pass to Beauchemin, who skated around Frolov to score at 7:47 of the first period.

The Kings, who scored power-play goals in their two previous games, had plenty of time to extend that streak over the first two periods with seven man-advantage opportunities.

But this time it was the Kings’ penalty killing unit that scored the team’s first goal against the Ducks.

With Craig Conroy in the penalty box for four minutes because of a high-sticking call, the Kings jumped all over the Ducks’ power play early in the second period.

Frolov got the play started when he intercepted a pass in the King zone and passed to Michael Cammalleri, who charged in front of the net with two Ducks in pursuit. Giguere was able to block Cammalleri’s shot but not Frolov’s rebound, which tied the score at 1-1 at 2:05 of the period. It was the 10th short-handed goal allowed by the Ducks this season, tied for the most in the NHL.

“We limited his ice time in the first period because we weren’t sure what we were getting,” Murray said about Frolov. “We gradually worked Frol in and I think that was good for him because that made him put his work boots on.”

The Ducks made sure the Kings did not stay even for long when during the same power play, Beauchemin launched a shot from the blue line that deflected off the Kings’ Tim Gleason past Mathieu Garon at 4:12.

With a 2-1 lead, the Ducks’ penalty killers stepped up by keeping the Kings scoreless the rest of the second period despite giving them four power play chances.

Early in the third period, the Ducks had a great chance to extend their lead to two goals when Selanne found Chris Kunitz behind the King defense only to have Garon make the save.

That set the stage for Robitaille, who scored his 11th goal of the season to tie the score at 2-2 at 11:38. Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky made the play when he skated with the puck through the neutral zone and passed to forward Derek Armstrong, who timed a great assist to a net-crashing Robitaille, whose goal sent the game into overtime.

“We’ve got to find a way to get some more points out of those [overtime games],” Duck defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. “They played hard and we did as well. But a one-goal lead is tough to hold.”

The Kings were 0 for 9 on the power play, and the Ducks were one for four.

Giguere made 32 saves, and Garon stopped 33 shots.

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Halfway home

The Kings took a 3-1 series edge over the Mighty Ducks this season, but the teams still have four games left.

* Oct. 25 at Kings 3, Ducks 1

* Dec. 16 Kings 4, at Ducks 3 (OT)

* Jan. 9 at Ducks 6, Kings 2

* Jan. 23 at Kings 3, Ducks 2 (SO)

* Sat. at Kings, 1 p.m., FSNW

* Mon. at Ducks, 7:30 p.m., FSNW2

* April 4 at Ducks, 7:30 p.m., FSNW2

* April 8 at Kings, 3 p.m., FSNW