Kings beat visiting Ducks in a shootout

Pierre-luc Dubois and Trevor Moore scored in the shootout as the host Kings defeated the Ducks 3-2 on Saturday night.

Leo Carlsson scored for the Ducks in the shootout.

Kevin Fiala, who had a goal and an assist, could not convert in the third round. It was up to David Rittich to stop Alex Killorn to preserve the victory for the Kings, who have nine straight victories over their Southern California rivals and have won six of eight games since the All-star break.

It was only Los Angeles’ second win in seven shootouts this season.

“We haven’t been great at shootouts all year, so that was big for confidence. And I think, overall, deserved the two points,” said Adrian Kempe, who had a pair of assists to extend his points streak against the Ducks to 10 games. “Maybe wasn’t our best performance overall, but it was a big win. And especially to get it in OT slash shootout was good for the confidence moving forward in that situation.”

The win also tied the Kings with the Edmonton Oilers for third place in the Pacific Division with 68 points. The teams play Monday night in Edmonton.

“That was huge. Every point matters right now. We dug ourselves a bit of a hole there in January, so we need to take what we can get now,” said defenseman Matt Roy.

Drew Doughty also had a goal and an assist and Rittich stopped 22 shots for the win.

Jakob Silfverberg and Sam Carrick scored for Anaheim while John Gibson made 48 saves.

“The first two periods had strong play from both teams. We both had zone time. In the third period they picked it up and had more energy than we did,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said.

The Kings outshot the Ducks 50-24 and scored two power-play goals.

“We generated 50 shots, plenty of chances. Their goalie played very well. But having said that, our goalie had to play well,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “Not as many chances, but they had some real looks off the rush that we didn’t like, but the goalie was there to make the saves.”