At the beginning of the season, it would have been inconceivable to consider that the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks would be playing in an inconsequential game this late in the campaign for either club.
But, here they are.
The Ducks hosted the Kings on Sunday night and surrendered three first period goals and never were able to catch up in a 3-2 loss.
Dustin Brown had a goal for Kings – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Carl Grundstrom, Dustin Brown and Kyle Clifford scored for LA in the opening frame.
For Grundstrom, it was his second goal in two games with the Kings; he’s on a call-up from the Ontario Reign in the American Hoc key League.
“I saw it as an opportunity,” he said. “I think it was really good for my career.”
The Kings improved to 25-36-8.
“The first period was really good for us,” Kings forward Adrian Kempe said. “We had really good breakouts that created a lot of odd-man rushes against them. We got some good chances and put the puck in the back of the net.”
Jonathan Quick made 18 saves in the win.
Daniel Sprong and Jakob Silfverberg scored for the Ducks who dropped to 27-34-9.
“First half of the game, not even close to good enough,” Silfverberg said. “We’ve been playing pretty good, but that was a step way back. We got flat-footed against a team that wanted it more. We kind of turned it on in the third period, but it was too late. You can’t just play 20 minutes and expect to win.”
[WATCH: Kings vs. Ducks highlights]
Ryan Miller made 22 saves in the loss.
“We tried to do a little too much with the puck early on, and it wasn’t available,” Miller said. “We didn’t get a whole lot going for ourselves.”
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