Ryan Kesler scored the lone goal for the Ducks, who fell to 6-7-3. This marked the eighth loss in the past nine games for Anaheim (1-6-2). It was also a rare regulation defeat at the hands of the Kings, as the Ducks entered the game with a 17-4-4 mark in their last 25 regular-season games against their crosstown rivals. John Gibson made 23 saves in his 13th appearance of the season.
"I didn't think we had the intensity that was required early in the hockey game," said head coach Randy Carlyle. "It took us kind of halfway through the game before we got ourselves awake and it was frustrating for the first half. Then probably the last 10 minutes of the second period we started getting our forecheck going and created some opportunities, and then we score a goal. Overall it was a close hockey game, but we just didn't start on time."
Perhaps reinvigorated with a new head coach behind the bench, the Kings jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals from Dustin Brown, Kyle Clifford and Ilya Kovalchuk. Tonight marked the debut for interim head coach Willie Desjardins, who replaced former Kings bench boss John Stevens on Sunday. Desjardins previously served as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks from 2014-17.
Jack Campbell made 30 saves for the Kings, who improved to 5-8-1 on the season. Campbell also picked up his first career point with an assist on Kovalchuk's goal in the second period.
The Kings opened the scoring at the 6:25 mark of the opening period when Brown batted Kovalchuk's backhanded pass out of mid-air for his third goal of the season. The goal came on the power play, as Andrew Cogliano was sitting for a high sticking infraction.
LA doubled its lead with 6:38 remaining in the first period when Clifford finished off a 2-on-1 rush with Alec Martinez. It marked Clifford's second goal/point in 12 games this season.
The lead grew to 3-0 when Kovalchuk snuck behind the Ducks defense as they were changing and buried a shot through the five hole. The play started at the other end of the ice when Campbell sent an outlet pass to Toffoli at the far blueline.
"I think when you make one or two mistakes and then three and four mistakes, the puck will end up in the back of your net," said Kesler. "That's what happened tonight, and we just got bullied out there. You know they played their game and they pushed us around and we really just had no response."
The Ducks got one back at the 13:21 mark of the middle frame when Kesler's deflection on Marcus Pettersson's point shot made it 3-1. The goal, though, came at a cost, as Brian Gibbons inadvertently collided with the back of Andrew Cogliano's shoulder in the high slot. Bleeding from the face, Gibbons got up under his own power. The veteran forward later returned to the game.
