The Los Angeles Kings, who captured six of a possible 10 points in the eastern portion of their season-opening seven-game road trip, head down the Santa Ana Freeway to the Honda Center on Sunday afternoon to face their Southern California rivals, the Anaheim Ducks.
The seven-game road trip, which began with a season-opening win at Buffalo and also included stops in Boston, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, ends on Tuesday in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights. The lengthy road trip was necessitated by arena renovations as Crypto.com Arena, where the Kings will host the San Jose Sharks in their home opener on Thursday.
Los Angeles capped the eastern portion of the trip on a high note with a 4-1 victory over the Canadiens on Thursday with David Rittich stopping 26 of 27 shots. Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist, and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov finished with two assists to lead the Kings offensively.
“It’s always a huge two points for us, especially on that long road trip,” Gavrikov said after his 16th career multi-point game. “We can bring some (points) home and just reset and we’ll be ready for the next one.”
Counting a couple of preseason games at neutral sites before their season-opening 3-1 victory at Buffalo on Oct. 10, the Kings spent 18 days on the road before flying back home after Thursday’s win.
The Kings had allowed a combined 14 goals in back-to-back losses at Ottawa (8-7 in overtime) and Toronto (6-2) before finishing up the trip with what coach Jim Hiller called his team’s best performance of the season.
“It was up and down the lineup tonight,” Hiller said. “That was probably as good of a team win as we’ve had in a long, long time.”
Anaheim comes in off a 4-3 overtime loss at Colorado on Friday night but felt fortunate to leave Denver with a point.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner with 41 seconds left in overtime for the Avalanche, who outshot the Ducks 35-11 over the first two periods and 49-20 for the game.
Anaheim’s Troy Terry scored a 6-on-5 goal with 12.6 seconds left in regulation to force overtime while Lukas Dostal finished with 45 saves, many of them of the grade-A variety.
“He was out best player, and it wasn’t close to the next guy,” said Terry, who has three goals in four games. “He was the only reason we got that point tonight.”
“It was an incredible goaltending performance,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “Just amazing. … They had triple the shots at one point. They played with playoff urgency and had us on our heels the whole night, and he kept us going.”
Colorado started the season with four consecutive losses before pulling out the win on Friday.
“They’re a good team and they were desperate,” Terry said. “And we have a goalie who is one of the best in the NHL right now. Kudos to Kos.”
Cronin said the Ducks will take the point and move on to Sunday’s contest with the Kings.
“We were bad,” Cronin said. “We didn’t play well. It’s one of those games where you throw the tape away and get ready for Los Angeles on Sunday.”
–Field Level Media