Kings take first meeting with Ducks
Anaheim, CA - At the beginning of the season, no one would have ever thought the Anaheim Ducks would part way with their franchise leading goalscorer.
Especially in a trade that saw an aging defenseman and an average center in return.
Teemu Selanne, now a member of the Los Angeles Kings-for the time being-finally faced his former team tonight as the Kings traveled a short distance to face the Ducks at the Honda Center.
The heated and rapidly growing rivalry between the Southern California teams had an extra incentive this time around, with Selanne switching between the two teams, and the Ducks having a set plan to stop him from scoring.
"We knew going into the game that Teemu wanted to score against us, but we know him too well and we were able to stop him on every occasion" said alternate captain Ryan Getzlaf.
Although the Ducks did manage to stop Selanne from reaching his goal tonight, they were unable to stop the rest of the team from scoring goals.
Drew Doughty scored the first goal at 16:26 of the first period for his fifth of the year with Oscar Moller and Jakub Klepis earning the assists on the 1-0 lead.
But Matt Beleskey tied it up in the second period with his shot getting through Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick at 6:04 for the 1-1 tie.
Two quick goals at 14:25 and 14:59 gave the Kings a quick and comfortable lead as Anze Kopitar took the game into his own hands, scoring both goals for his seventh and eighth goals of the season for a 3-1 lead.
The first of which came off an unassisted play that saw Anaheim defenseman Steve Eminger cough up the puck in their defensive zone, giving Kopitar a perfect chance to score.
His second came of the faceoff after he won the draw and sent the puck back to Drew Doughty who quickly sent it into the zone with Justin Williams receiving it and making the quick pass for Kopitar's goal, making it three past Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Anaheim did manage to come back in the third period as they made the game a bit more interesting as James Wisnieski scored with 1:47 on the clock for the 3-2 score, bringing the Ducks back into the game and within one goal of tying the game.
But the Kings, known for their impressive third period play, held the Ducks to the one goal deficit as they went on to win thefirst meeting between the Southern California rivals, 3-2.