Kings get loss but some hope

So that’s what happens when a Kings goaltender smothers shots and doesn’t leave rebounds that slither under his arm or slip between his pads and saddle his team with deficits it can’t make up.

He gives his team a chance to win.

Imagine that.

The Kings narrowly missed capitalizing on that chance Tuesday when goalie Erik Ersberg, given his first start after backing up Jason LaBarbera the first 10 games, stopped 26 shots to keep them competitive against the surging Ducks.

Ersberg was beaten only by Chris Pronger’s one-timer from the right circle 40 seconds into overtime, which lifted the Ducks to a 1-0 victory at Staples Center and extended their roll to 7-0-1.

The Kings, cheered by a small but vocal crowd of 14,327, are winless in their last five (0-3-2). But they should gain some hope from the play of Ersberg, who controlled the puck with unflappable calm no matter the circumstances and showed he deserved another chance to play, and soon.

Ersberg had to fend off a Ducks power play in the opening minutes of the game that became a two-man advantage for eight seconds, as well as a power play of the third period after Wayne Simmonds was sent off for hooking with 1:24 to play.

Ersberg held up well through both of those situations, but he and the Kings couldn’t stop Pronger’s long shot, set up on passes from Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf.

“I didn’t see it. I heard it,” Ersberg said.

“It was a fun night until the end.”

That goal created the first 1-0 game between these teams since April 14, 2002, when the Kings’ Jamie Storr shut out the Ducks at Staples Center.

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 35 shots for his second shutout of the season and 31st of his career, a fine effort but one that’s expected from a proven goalie who has been a playoff most valuable player (2003) and Stanley Cup champion in 2007.

“They’re a real good young team. Their goalie played well,” he said. “But we don’t worry about them. We worry about ourselves, and tonight we got the win.”

Only barely.

Less is expected from Ersberg than of Giguere, but Ersberg delivered a strong performance Tuesday against a team that is looking more and more as if it will be a factor in the West playoffs this spring.

“I liked him a lot,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said of Ersberg. “This certainly earns him another chance.”

In the next game?

“I’m going to have to think about that one,” Murray said.

It should be an easy choice.

Ersberg, who was the best of the Kings’ mediocre goaltending bunch last season when he compiled a 2.48 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in 14 games, was ill at the start of training camp in September and fell behind LaBarbera on the depth chart.

He shouldn’t stay there. He deserves to play again and not to be relegated to the bench behind LaBarbera, a very average goaltender who has no upside to his game at nearly 29.

Murray has been changing his line combinations too often but didn’t change his starting goalie quickly enough, waiting too long to let Ersberg get a start.

Now is not the time to change again. Murray should send Ersberg out there again Thursday against Florida to let him build some confidence and allow his team to build some continuity.

To be fair, Murray has often been driven to juggle his lines because of the inconsistency that is one of the downsides of assembling a young lineup.

Kyle Calder has no business on the first line, with the infinitely more talented Anze Kopitar and the fearless and physical Dustin Brown, but no one has done any better -- and Calder had perhaps the Kings’ best scoring chance early in the second period Tuesday, jabbing at the rebound of a Drew Doughty shot and driving Giguere to make a quick glove stab.

The Kings had a chance to do some damage early in the second period. Brian Boyle checked Rob Niedermayer hard into the boards, setting off a scuffle in the neutral zone. When the players were separated, Niedermayer got four minutes for roughing and teammate Travis Moen got two, while Boyle got only two for roughing.

The Ducks had the option to play two men short for two minutes or one man short for four minutes.

Coach Randy Carlyle chose to play one short for four minutes, a term that was cut short when Kings center Michal Handzus was penalized for hooking at 7:18.

Giguere held steady, but that’s what he’s supposed to do.

Ersberg very nearly matched him, and that’s the best thing the Kings could possibly have expected.

“I felt pretty calm out there,” Ersberg said. “After the first couple shots, it was like a normal game. I knew what to expect. I just tried to get in front of the puck.”

He was nearly perfect in that regard, letting only one well-placed and well-timed shot get past him. He deserves the chance to start again. Soon.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com