The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks both head into their Freeway Face-Off showdown at Anaheim on Friday afternoon coming off a pair of impressive bounce-back wins.
Los Angeles, which gave up five third-period goals in an embarrassing 7-2 loss to the last-place San Jose Sharks on Monday, rebounded with a 4-1 home victory over the NHL points-leading Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
Anaheim, a 3-2 loser to visiting Seattle on Monday, took the second half of the home-and-home series with the Kraken after a convincing 5-2 road victory on Wednesday.
The Southern California rivals will try to build on their momentum in the second of their four meetings this season. The first one, played at Anaheim on Oct. 20, was tied 0-0 heading into the third period before the Kings scored four times, including a pair of empty-netters by Kevin Fiala and Mikey Anderson, to defeat the Ducks 4-1.
David Rittich needed just 13 saves, including only two in the third period, in the Kings’ win over the Jets on Wednesday en route to his 100th career NHL win. Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe each had a goal and an assist and Alex Laferriere added two assists as third-place Los Angeles moved to within four points of Pacific Division-leading Vegas with the win.
“It’s an example maybe of how good we can be,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “It’s hard to be really good like that night after night. It’s an 82-game season, but it gives us an example of what is possible if we all play together in a certain style of play.”
Said Kings left wing Trevor Moore: “It’s a great win. That’s the best team in the league. We wish we could play like that every night, and that’s on us. We have to bring that type of intensity and work ethic. We really committed to the forecheck tonight and I think that paid off for us.”
Anaheim won its third straight road game at Seattle with John Gibson making a season-high 42 saves to improve to 4-0-1 on the season. Trevor Zegras, Cutter Gauthier and Alex Killorn each has a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who were a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
“It’s pretty simple for us,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “If we put the pucks deep, you saw it was a physical style to start the game, and then I thought we sustained it for 60 minutes. I’ve been saying all year when you get good sticks and finish checks that means you’re skating, and I thought we did a good job of that for 60 minutes.”
Gibson, who missed the first month of the season after undergoing emergency appendectomy surgery on Sept. 25, has yet to lose in regulation in five starts while compiling a .919 save percentage and 2.57 goals-against average.
“I feel pretty good with my reads,” Gibson said. “Just feel like I’m reading the play well and staying square and staying calm and just having fun.”
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak against Seattle for the Ducks.
“We played really well,” Gibson said. “We did a lot of good things offensively, getting pucks to the net, bodies to the net, and found a way to get some greasy goals. It was a big team win. It’ll be nice to have a day off and enjoy Thanksgiving and then we’ve got a big one against the Kings.”
–Field Level Media