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Stoll's OT winner puts LA Kings past Ducks 3-2
LOS ANGELES (AP) After a bitter seven-game playoff series last spring and two overtime nail-biters in the past four days, the Los Angeles Kings' rivalry with the Anaheim Ducks has never been more intriguing.
Jarret Stoll added more flavor to the Freeway Faceoff with a big game-winner for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Stoll scored his first goal of the season 2:19 into overtime, and the Kings rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Ducks on Saturday.
Stoll tapped a slow-sliding puck under Frederik Andersen in the waning seconds of a power play, capping the Los Angeles' much-needed comeback in the Southern California clubs' second entertaining meeting of the week.
The Kings have won just three of their past 10 games overall, but their 37-shot effort against Andersen culminated with Justin Williams driving to the net and Stoll finishing it off.
''A lot of times our team doesn't score the pretty goals,'' said Stoll, who hadn't scored an overtime goal since Nov. 17, 2005. ''We grind it out, and we were lucky to get that one. ... We pushed a little harder today.''
Tyler Toffoli scored a short-handed goal, Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and Anze Kopitar scored the tying power-play goal midway through the third period for the Kings, who got a boost from the intensity in this local derby.
''We came out with a little physicality,'' Kopitar said. ''The guys were hitting people, so the physical presence was definitely there. We tightened it up defensively, and that's what we needed to do.''
Emerson Etem and Ryan Kesler scored for the Ducks, who beat Los Angeles 6-5 in a shootout on Wednesday.
Andersen, who got chased early in the clubs' first meeting Wednesday, made 34 saves in the Ducks' club-record fifth straight overtime game.
Anaheim has earned points in seven straight games, but its five-game regular-season winning streak against Los Angeles ended after Hampus Lindholm got a sketchy hooking penalty 23 seconds into overtime. The Ducks also didn't like the goalie interference penalty against captain Ryan Getzlaf leading to Kopitar's goal.
''It's two good teams playing hard, and you wish it didn't have to go like that,'' Getzlaf said. ''We're battling through a lot of injuries. We've got some big guys out of our lineup, so when we get some points every night, it's a positive.''
Corey Perry missed his fifth straight game and Francois Beauchemin sat out his third straight game for Anaheim while recovering from mumps.
Defenseman Alec Martinez sat out for Los Angeles after injuring his finger blocking a shot in Thursday's loss to Dallas. Robyn Regehr returned from a three-game absence for the Kings' injury-plagued defense, which again relied on Drew Doughty to play more than half of the game.
After a scoreless first period, Etem put the Ducks ahead with a second-effort backhand in front of Quick for just his second goal of the season.
Toffoli evened it moments later with his NHL-leading fourth short-handed goal of the young season.
The Ducks jumped back ahead late in the second when Bryan Allen made a sharp cross-ice pass to Kesler for his sixth goal with his new team. Kesler had scored just one goal in the previous four weeks before getting three more in two games against the Kings.
After Getzlaf's penalty for running into Quick, Kopitar evened it with a big shot through traffic late in a sharp power play. The Kings hadn't scored on their previous 18 power-play chances over seven games since Nov. 2.
''They had more shots, but we had better scoring chances,'' Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. ''Five-on-five, I thought we outplayed them. I thought we were right there, every moment of the game.''
NOTES: Anaheim hadn't lost a day game since April 7, 2012, at Calgary. ... Devante Smith-Pelly sat out with an upper-body injury after missing the Ducks' past two practices. Chris Wagner played 7:08 after he was recalled from Anaheim's AHL affiliate in Norfolk. ... Toffoli has played 18 games this season. He is the fastest player to four short-handed goals since Philadelphia's Simon Gagne scored four in his first 15 games in the 2008-09 season.
