Anaheim Handles Rivals

The Ducks picked up a win over their Southern California rival the Kings Tuesday 3-1.

Anaheim, who was wearing their eggplant jade jerseys for the final time of the season, would come up big in the third to pull away with the win.

Lukas Dostal had a pick night for the Ducks picking up 36 saves in the win. Trevor Zegras picked up his first goal since coming back from injury. Alex Killorn and Frank Vatrano scored as well. Ryan Strome had two helpers on the night. Cam Fowler had an assist as well; he has four points in his last five games.

For the Kings it was Akil Thomas picking up the lone goal in just his fifth career NHL start. Cam Talbot took the loss in net for L.A. 

Los Angeles would strike first as Akil Thomas would score his second goal of the year after a scrum for a rebound broke out in front of Lukas Dostal 5:50 into the game’s first period. Trevor Lewis and Vladisov Garikov assisted on the play. 

Then with just 2:14 left in the first, Frank Vatrano scored his team leading 33rd goal of the year to tie things up. Radko Gudas would launch a beautiful pass from the blue line down to Vatrano who was directly in front of the net.

After one period the score was tied 1-1.

The second period would be a goaltender battle with neither team managing to score.

Lastly, the game’s final period was a rally for the Ducks.

First Aex Killorn would grab his 18th goal of the season, the most by any Ducks defenseman, just 1:51 into the third. Ryan Strome drove the puck into the offensive zone for the Ducks he would pass it off to Cam Fowler and then Fowler would Find Killorn whose snapshot found twine.

Then four minutes later Trevor Zegras would score for the first time since January 7th. The goal came after creating a turnover for himself and skating into the zone and just rifling a wrist shot past the glove of Cam Talbot. 

That would do things scoring wise and the Ducks would pick up the win 3-2. The team now has a chance to end the year with an even Freeway Face off series when the two teams meet again on the 13th.

Anaheim did a lot right to win this match up. Keeping their penalty minutes down with just four helped the team remain on offensive and have meaningful possessions. Trevor Zegras has gotten the hot stick and has seemed to be doing well after his injury. 

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Featured image via NHL.com