Getzlaf, Perron help Ducks top Kings, win fifth in row

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter said the Anaheim Ducks were supposed to win the Pacific Division and the Stanley Cup all along, based on preseason projections.
The Ducks did their best to reinforce that opinion Thursday.

David Perron had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Getzlaf scored his first even-strength goal this season in the Ducks' 4-2 win against the Kings at Staples Center.
Ryan Garbutt and Hampus Lindholm scored for the second straight game, and goalie John Gibson made 23 saves for the Ducks (24-18-7), who are 12-3-1 since the NHL's Christmas break.
"We felt really good coming out of Christmas," Getzlaf said. "I felt the Christmas break was a little step for us to just breathe a minute and enjoy the families. I felt we came back to the rink with a little bit of a new life and started buying in a little bit more every day, and we've been building it."
With the win and the Arizona Coyotes' overtime loss against the Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim is in sole possession of third place in the Pacific, three points behind the second-place San Jose Sharks with a game in hand.
Los Angeles (31-17-3) has lost four of its past six games heading into a seven-game road trip. Its first goal came when Drew Doughty's shot bounced in off Tyler Toffoli's leg at 4:15 of the second period to make it 3-1. It was Toffoli's 23rd goal, tying his NHL career-high.
The Kings committed eight giveaways, atypical for a team that prides itself on taking care of the puck.

"The whole game wasn't the way we wanted it, and I'm pretty sure it showed to everybody in the arena and [everybody] watching saw that," Toffoli said. "We just didn't play the way we wanted to play. We were turning pucks over, and when you're down 2-0 10 minutes into the game, it's tough to come back."
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick was pulled after Garbutt's goal put the Ducks ahead 3-0 at 2:41 of the second period. It was an unusually poor 20 minutes for the Kings, who were outshot 15-4 in the second and 22-13 through two periods.
Los Angeles chased the game from the start after Anaheim quieted the crowd by building a 2-0 lead in the first period.
"I thought when you chase a goalie like that out of the net, obviously you're playing well," Ducks center Ryan Kesler said. "It was a weird game tonight. I didn't think it was a typical Ducks-Kings game. It seemed to lack that grittiness and those hits, but all in all, I thought it was a good game."
Perron fell down on a drive to the net and had Getzlaf's pass go in off his skate while he slid into the goal for a 2-0 Ducks lead at 13:19 of the first. Getzlaf got his 500th NHL assist.
Perron has three goals and five assists in six games with Anaheim, almost all of them with Getzlaf as his linemate. The two were paired together in the third period of Perron's Ducks debut, against the Kings on Jan. 17.
"He could play with anybody and he's going to make you look really good," Perron said of Getzlaf.
Getzlaf scored his fourth goal on a wrist shot that beat Quick to the glove side to finish a 2-on-1 with Perron at 8:59 of the first.

"They feel good," Getzlaf said of his first even-strength goal, which came in his 45th game. "When you only get a few, every one feels good whether it's even strength or not."
Sutter said the Ducks' centers dominated the Kings'.
Getzlaf turned in one of his more dominating games in an otherwise underachieving season.
"With the history of this team, if he's playing like he was tonight, then usually the rest of the team follows suit," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said.
Kings defenseman Alec Martinez scored with 24 seconds left.
Quick allowed three goals on nine shots. Backup goalie Jhonas Enroth made 14 saves on 15 shots.