No Love Is Lost in Tie

It might have been only a game between two teams searching for momentum to make a postseason run, but Saturday night’s 2-2 tie between the Kings and the Mighty Ducks had the feel of a playoff game.

Before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005, the Kings overcame two disallowed goals to get a tie on a late third-period goal by Kai Nurminen to end a two-game losing streak.

“There is quite a rivalry between [the Kings and the Ducks]. . . . It may not be that old, but it is definitely building,” said King goaltender Byron Dafoe, who made 24 stops in improving to 10-8-2. “There were a couple of cheap shots, a couple of big hits and some fights. We definitely are not the best of friends out there. For us, whenever we look at the standings, we always want to be ahead of the Ducks.”

With 42 points, the Ducks were able to maintain their two-point lead over the Kings and their point moved them into a tie for the final Western Conference playoff position. However, the tie felt more like a loss for the Ducks, who took a 2-1 lead on Sean Pronger’s goal midway in the third period.

“I’m disappointed that we gave up a point after we took the lead when we did,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “All in all, a point puts us in the eighth spot. The Kings played hard. We played hard. It was a matter of inches out there.”

The up-and-down Kings received a motivational boost before the game thanks to former King and Duck first-year radio commentator Pat Conacher, who said during a broadcast last week that the Kings were going nowhere and that the Ducks probably would have more fans at the Forum.

“I received a memo of what [Conacher said] and I just passed it along to the team before the game,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “I thank Patty for a little motivation.”

Compared to their 7-2 loss at San Jose on Wednesday, in which they gave up 24 shots on goal in the first period, the Kings took it to the Ducks from the opening faceoff.

Forward Yanic Perreault gave the Kings a 1-0 lead 1:43 into the game when he skated from the Kings’ zone down the right side to the left circle in the Ducks’ zone and beat Duck goalie Guy Hebert to score his ninth goal of the season.

Five minutes into the period, Dafoe survived a scare when a blue-line shot by Duck left wing Garry Valk slipped between his legs and rolled into the left post. Dafoe, however, wasn’t as lucky the next time Anaheim had a solid scoring chance when Paul Kariya, who scored three goals in the Ducks’ 6-3 loss at Phoenix on Thursday, made a perfect pass to Steve Rucchin, who scored his 11th goal of the season from in front of the crease at 12:50.

“When you play a team like Anaheim, you have to be concerned with [the high-scoring line of Teemu Selanne, Rucchin and Kariya],” King forward Dan Bylsma said. “You talk about stopping them before the game, between periods, at all times. We had to be ready in case they start double-shifting them.”

To combat that Ducks’ line, the Kings tried to match them against defensive-minded forwards Neal Broten, Dimitri Khristich and Vitali Yachmenev. It worked as the Kings--who had a goal by Mattias Norstrom disallowed because Kevin Stevens was ruled in the crease at 14:46--were able to keep Anaheim scoreless in the second period.

Following a missed breakaway by Khristich, the Ducks finally were able to take the lead at 10:31 of the third period when Pronger made his first NHL score a power-play goal after a missed shot by Dmitri Mironov.

That’s when the Kings turned up the pressure offensively, but Hebert, who had 26 saves, was there to keep them from scoring.

After going scoreless on six power plays, the Kings tied the game on Nurminen’s even-strength goal with 2:45 remaining in regulation. Nurminen scored after picking up a loose puck in the Duck zone and slapping a shot from the slot under Hebert’s right armpit.

From there, both teams had a couple of scoring chances but came up empty.

The Kings had another goal disallowed when Perreault finished off a two-on-one break with Broten at 7:20 of the third, but none of the players heard the referee’s whistle signal a tripping penalty against Perreault after he lost the puck to Darren Van Impe inside the Kings’ line.

“I think that [tie] was a good indication of what we’ll face the rest of the year,” Duck defenseman Bobby Dollas said. “They want to make the playoffs. We want to make the playoffs. This is the way we’ve got to play.”