Kings get loss but some hope

So that's what happens when a Kings goaltender smothers shots and doesn't leave rebounds that slither under his arm or slip between his pads and saddle his team with deficits it can't make up.

He gives his team a chance to win.

Imagine that.

The Kings narrowly missed capitalizing on that chance Tuesday when goalie Erik Ersberg, given his first start after backing up Jason LaBarbera the first 10 games, stopped 26 shots to keep them competitive against the surging Ducks.

Ersberg was beaten only by Chris Pronger's one-timer from the right circle 40 seconds into overtime, which lifted the Ducks to a 1-0 victory at Staples Center and extended their roll to 7-0-1.

The Kings, cheered by a small but vocal crowd of 14,327, are winless in their last five (0-3-2). But they should gain some hope from the play of Ersberg, who controlled the puck with unflappable calm no matter the circumstances and showed he deserved another chance to play, and soon.

Ersberg had to fend off a Ducks power play in the opening minutes of the game that became a two-man advantage for eight seconds, as well as a power play of the third period after Wayne Simmonds was sent off for hooking with 1:24 to play.

Ersberg held up well through both of those situations, but he and the Kings couldn't stop Pronger's long shot, set up on passes from Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf.

"I didn't see it. I heard it," Ersberg said.

"It was a fun night until the end."

That goal created the first 1-0 game between these teams since April 14, 2002, when the Kings' Jamie Storr shut out the Ducks at Staples Center.

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 35 shots for his second shutout of the season and 31st of his career, a fine effort but one that's expected from a proven goalie who has been a playoff most valuable player (2003) and Stanley Cup champion in 2007.

"They're a real good young team. Their goalie played well," he said. "But we don't worry about them. We worry about ourselves, and tonight we got the win."

Only barely.

Less is expected from Ersberg than of Giguere, but Ersberg delivered a strong performance Tuesday against a team that is looking more and more as if it will be a factor in the West playoffs this spring.

"I liked him a lot," Kings Coach Terry Murray said of Ersberg. "This certainly earns him another chance."

In the next game?

"I'm going to have to think about that one," Murray said.