A sweet start for Kings after playoffs’ bitter end

The Kings insisted that if they’d been able to get the Vancouver Canucks to a seventh game in their playoff series last spring they might have prevailed. That didn’t happen.

So they’ll have to take whatever consolation they can from their 2-1 shootout victory Saturday at Rogers Arena in both teams’ season opener.

The Kings improved to 18-16-9 in openers with their rally.

In the shootout, Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick stopped Mason Raymond, and Anze Kopitar scored on Roberto Luongo. Quick made an easy pad save on Ryan Kesler to lead off the second round and Jack Johnson won the game by clanging a shot off the post and past Luongo.

The Kings had a power play late in overtime and controlled the puck for nearly the full two minutes without scoring, Luongo made excellent pad saves on Kopitar from close range and Drew Doughty from the blue line.

The game got to overtime because the Kings tied it with 4:05 left in the third period, during a power play. Dustin Brown shot from the top of the left circle, and the puck bounced in front. Michal Handzus got a stick on it and left a rebound for Justin Williams, who flicked it past Luongo.

They also survived a scare after Kopitar was clipped in the face by Manny Malhotra’s stick on the follow-through of a shot at 8:57 of the second period.

Kopitar was cut and needed some dental work but he returned for the third period after getting repairs. A baseball player would have gone on the disabled list for two weeks for far less.

The Kings’ kiddie corps acquitted itself well. Brayden Schenn, centering Kyle Clifford and Kevin Westgarth most of the game, was fearless and physical in his second-ever NHL game and made a fine defensive play in overtime to prolong the game. Clifford threw his body around and took no guff. Defenseman Jake Muzzin, paired mostly with Davis Drewiske, got some power-play time on the point with Jarret Stoll and did not seem out of place.

“Out of training camp we had a lot of young kids making the team and stepping up and filling roles and that’s a great thing for the organization in general,” team captain Brown said before the game. “And then you have that core that’s been in place for two or three years. Our core with the exception of me — well for another month — is 25 and under. That’s a pretty good thing for the Kings.”

Before the game, Canucks celebrated the 40th anniversary of their NHL debut, a 3-1 loss to the Kings across town at the Pacific Coliseum. The Kings wore replicas of the jerseys they wore that night in gold and the color owner Jack Kent Cooke called “Forum Blue,” retro uniforms they will wear three times more this season, all at home. Quick wore vintage-style brown pads and a helmet that paid tribute to Rogie Vachon, a nice touch.

There were no names on the back of the Kings’ jerseys or the Canucks’ retro white jerseys, which probably helped spur program sales.

The Canucks began to carry the play as the second period wore on and Alexi Ponikarovsky, who was sent off for interference in the first period of his Kings debut, was sent off for slashing at 11:15. The Canucks converted that power play, their third, for the first goal of the game.

Daniel Sedin took a pass from his brother Henrik and worked the puck down low. He threw the puck in front, where it appeared to bounce off the stick of Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi in the chaos in front of the net and was poked in by defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, taking a chance by going deep into the zone but making it pay off.

Ponikarovsky continued his less-than-impressive debut game by picking up his third penalty of the night in the third period, a boarding call in the Kings’ end at 1:17. Alexander Frolov, whose place Ponikarovsky essentially took on the roster, could have done the same thing—but then again, Frolov wouldn’t have been in the corner, where the hostilities broke out.

The Kings have no time to dwell on this one. They play at Calgary on Sunday, and they haven’t won there since December 2005.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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