The Kings’ season-high 50 shots on net produced merely two goals Saturday, both scored during power plays.
They gave up a shorthanded goal to the Ducks and committed enough giveaways to raise questions about how well they’ll fare if they replicate that during their upcoming trip to face division rivals Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. For the second straight game, they were unable to produce a five-on-five goal.
The negatives are worrisome. But what mattered most to the Kings was that they conquered their shootout demons to get two points they urgently needed, prevailing 3-2 Saturday at Crypto.com Arena after scoring twice on beleaguered John Gibson during the shootout to one goal for the Ducks against David Rittich.
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The victory, their eighth straight against the Ducks, wasn’t pretty. “It was kind of a grind game tonight, more than it’s been in the last couple of years against Anaheim,” Kings winger Adrian Kempe said. “Credit to them.”
The best case scenario for the Kings is that their second victory in seven shootouts this season will prove to be a confidence boost as they prepare for a challenging trip that could change their playoff positioning for the better — or for the worse.
“It was huge. Every point matters right now,” said defenseman Matt Roy, who was credited with a career-high 10 shots on goal, nearly half of the defense corps’ collective 21 shots on net. “We dug ourselves in a bit of a hole there in January so we need to take what we can get now.”
Playing without steady defenseman Mikey Anderson, whose status was listed as week to week because of an upper-body injury, the Kings’ defense was sometimes burned by the Ducks’ playmaking off the rush. The Ducks didn’t manage much sustained pressure in taking 24 shots at Rittich, but they created some problems. Defenseman Drew Doughty played 27 minutes and 34 seconds, a heavy load.
But the Kings persevered, emerging with two points that kept them close to Edmonton and ahead of the teams chasing them in the West wild-card scramble. “It was huge,” Kempe said of earning the second point by winning the shootout. “I think we deserved the two points. Maybe it wasn’t our best performance out there but it was a…