Kings vs Ducks Game 3: Almost, But Not Quite

Well that certainly didn’t end up the way that any of us had wanted. Our secret hopes of the Kings sweeping the Ducks were dashed when the Kings dropped their first game at home.

The first period was pretty evenly matched. Both teams played with plenty of jump, traded scoring chances, and smashed each other against the boards. The Ducks had the advantage though by capitalizing on an uncharacteristic penalty by Trevor Lewis, who tends to draw more penalties than he takes. The Ducks were able to coordinate some slick passing to feed Corey Perry for his first of the series. Gross.

The second period saw the Kings come back to tie it up. We didn’t all travel back in time together for the goal, but it felt like it. The Kings go on the power play, and they set up the exact same triangle play that the Ducks did on their goal. I’m going to be totally biased and say that the Kings version looked way better, in no small part because it was Jeff Carter with the goal instead of Corey Perry.

The Ducks weren’t content with a tie game, so when the Kings tried to play hockey by running into each other and falling down, you could just knew a goal was imminent. A nice pass from Bonino to Selanne gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead. I love Teemu and all, but if the Kings could just stop letting him score, that’d be swell.

The Kings went into the third down 1 to the Ducks, a not unfamiliar situation for them this series. Though their deficit was made even greater when, and I can’t believe that this is a thing that I have to type, Ben Lovejoy out maneuvered Drew Doughty to bring the Ducks up two.

If there’s something the Kings like to do in the 3 games they’ve played against the Ducks, it’s snatch the game winning goal away from Teemu Selanne with a baseball like goal in the final seconds of the third. Even though it ended up being too little, too late for a comeback, Mike Richards (!) scored the Kings 2nd goal with 30 seconds left in the game.

Good effort by the Kings in the end, but it just wasn’t enough. It’s only one game, and the Kings didn’t look heinous, so they just need to buckle down and win 2 more so we can stop thinking about the Ducks.