Kings hold on to beat Ducks, 4-3
HELENE ELLIOTT
Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Alexander Frolov make their presence known as L.A. overcomes stellar effort by Anaheim rookie Bobby Ryan, who scores his first career hat trick.
The Kings have solidified their defense and -- miracle of miracles -- seem to have found a goaltender capable of stopping the puck, but they've struggled to accomplish much at the other end of the ice.
Their scoring futility threatened to negate their progress and made it imperative for Anze Kopitar, their first-line center on paper if not by deed, to do something to end those woes.
It was also time for Dustin Brown, their captain, to put some goals alongside his prodigious hit totals, and for winger Alexander Frolov to be an impact player more than occasionally.
All three made their presence known Thursday in the Kings' 4-3 victory over the Ducks in front of a lively crowd at Staples Center, Frolov by capping it with the decisive goal in the third period after the Ducks -- surprise! -- took a bad penalty for having too many men on the ice.
It took tremendous efforts by Kopitar, Brown, Frolov and everyone else in purple and white to overcome the one-man show staged by Ducks rookie Bobby Ryan, who erased the Kings' 3-0 lead by scoring his first career hat trick in a span of 2 minutes 21 seconds.
That set a club record for the fastest hat trick and impressed the Kings, but it didn't faze them.
"We knew we were capable of winning this game and we played a really good solid team game," said Frolov, who connected on a short wrister after Teddy Purcell's long shot had caromed in front of the net. "We just didn't stop and kept working and scored a huge goal.
"Obviously, we gave up a few goals and it was kind of an even game in the third period, but we didn't stop."
The game was even only because Ryan's stellar performance helped balance out a shaky effort by Ducks goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere -- one that was far from his first.
Giguere, voted the starter for the West All-Star team, gave up a long wrist shot by Brown at 19:54 of the first period and was pulled after he was beaten by Wayne Simmonds' 45-foot snap shot 37 seconds into the second, the 10th shot he faced. He was replaced by Jonas Hiller, the winning goalie in the Ducks' 3-1 victory over the Kings at Anaheim on Tuesday.
"The puck, in my mind, should not go in from those angles on the stick side on both goals," Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said, "so I made the decision."
Ryan launched the Ducks' comeback by beating Kings goalie Jonathan Quick to the short side for a power-play goal at 19:14 of the second period.
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