Ducks Beat The Kings Again

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks played the Los Angeles Kings in the second of back-to-backs at home. Lukas Dostal was in net against Anton Forsberg. Newly acquired Jeffrey Viel made his Anaheim debut.

Mason McTavish scored just over six minutes into the game to give Anaheim the early 1-0 lead.

Towards the end of the period, Jeffrey Viel and Samuel Helenius dropped the gloves. Ducks led 1-0 after the first period.

In the second period the Kings tied up the game on the power play. The Ducks were called for back-to-back penalties and Adrian Kempe scored with a wrist shot during the 5-on-3 power play. The teams were tied at one after two.

There was no scoring in the third period and bonus hockey would be needed once again to determine a winner. In overtime, Beckett Sennecke stole the puck from Kevin Fiala and sprung Mikael Granlund on an odd man rush the other way. Granlund faked like he was going to pass to Sennecke, but instead took the shot beating Forsberg at the near post. Ducks won 2-1.

Analysis:

Another game against LA and another win for Anaheim. This was also another tight game which needed bonus hockey to determine a winner. McTavish got the Ducks on the board first period and then the Kings responded with a goal in the second. The teams ended regulation in a 1-1 tie. In overtime, Beckett Sennecke created a turnover springing a rush for Anaheim and Granlund scored the game winning goal.

Sennecke has been playing lights out for Anaheim this season. On the final sequence in overtime, he prevented Kevin Fiala from getting a shot off by lifting Fiala’s stick and then he sent the puck back toward the neutral zone where Granlund picked it up. Sennecke then jumped into the rush drawing attention from Forsberg and Drew Doughty, which gave Granlund space to score the game winning goal.

The Ducks played a stronger even strength game in this contest as compared to the night before. Anaheim posted a CF% of 54.55% and FF% of 63.33% at even strength. The Ducks had 48 shot attempts to 40 for the Kings at even strength.

Overall, the Kings did put up 60 shot attempts to 59 for the Ducks. But LA had 17 shot attempts alone from their nearly nine minutes of power play time. Anaheim did a great job defensively blocking 22 of those shot attempts, holding LA to just 18 shots on goal. The Ducks ended the night with 33 shots on net.

Special teams were a factor in the contest. The Ducks were 0-for-3 with the man advantage. The Kings scored once on their six(yes six, you read that correctly) power plays. Five of LA’s power plays came in the second period alone. The Ducks got in penalty trouble early in the period with penalties called on Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba just seven seconds apart. The Ducks only gave up one goal during the 5-on-3 from those penalties.

The Ducks earned all four possible points against the Kings in these two games. The only thing that could have been better would have been winning one or both games in regulation.

Team Notes/Stats:

Granlund scored his seventh career overtime goal, tying Jari Kurri and Sami Salo for the fifth-most by a Finland-born player in NHL history.

Sennecke is just the second Anaheim player to have a point in each of his first four career games against the Kings. Matt Cullen did it during the 1997-98 season.

Sennecke extended his point streak to five games. This is second five game point streak this season. He is also the third rookie in Anaheim history to achieve this feat. Paul Kariya had two five point streaks during the 1994-95 season. Bobby Ryan had three of them during the 2008-09 season.

The Ducks win the Freeway Face-Off battle against the Kings. Anaheim went 3-1-0 and LA went 1-0-3.

Ducks are 14-5-0 when scoring first this season.

What’s Next?

The Ducks host the New York Rangers on Monday at 7PM.

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January 18th, 2026