John Gibson, Ducks shut out Kings

ANAHEIM -- John Gibson made 24 saves for his fifth shutout of the season to help the Anaheim Ducks to a 1-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Honda Center on Sunday.
Gibson entered the game leading the NHL since Christmas in goals-against average (1.98) and save percentage (.934). He was also the winning goaltender for the Ducks (31-19-10) in a 1-0 victory at the Minnesota Wild last Tuesday.
"This time of the season, that's the way it's going to be," Gibson said. "Going into the playoffs and towards the end of the year, games are going to be tight. There's not much room for error, so you have to be pretty good."

WATCH: All Kings vs. Ducks highlights
Josh Manson took advantage of a turnover in the Kings zone for the game's only goal at 1:19 of the second period, taking a centering pass from Ryan Getzlaf and beating goalie Peter Budaj with a wrist shot.
"Anytime [Getzlaf] gets the puck and turns up with it on that side of the ice, I know he sees you. He sees everything," Manson said. "I just tried to find a hole."

Manson's turnover in front of the Ducks net on Friday led to the game-winning goal by Jaromir Jagr in a 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle moved Jakob Silfverberg back on a line with Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano to start the game. They put pressure on the Kings (28-26-4) on the first shift, forcing a turnover in the offensive zone and turning it into a prime scoring chance when Cogliano passed the puck out from behind the Kings net to Kesler, who shot wide.
The Kings and Ducks combined for eight shot on goals in the first 10 minutes of the opening period, and eight shots during the second 10 minutes with Anaheim holding a 9-7 edge heading into the second. The Ducks increased the advantage to 21-14 after two periods and continued to limit prime scoring chances in the third.
"That's the way we want to play," Gibson said. "Obviously we're not scoring a ton of goals, so we've got to find other ways, and it starts with defense."

Goal of the game

Kings defenseman Brayden McNabb tried to stop the puck in the corner, but it skipped past him. Getzlaf got control and centered it between Drew Doughty and Nicholas Shore to Manson, who was charging through the slot. Budaj couldn't slide over in time and Manson scored his second goal of the season and seventh of his career.

Save of the game

Shortly after the Ducks took a 1-0 lead, Kings forward Anze Kopitar brought the puck into the Anaheim zone with speed and left it behind for McNabb, whose turnover had just led to Manson's goal. McNabb put a little extra on his blast from the top right circle and Gibson didn't have time to lift his glove, but he did use his left shoulder to stop the puck and deflect it aside at 2:45 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Los Angeles put the most pressure on Gibson in the third period and he showed his quick hands on a hard shot from the high slot from Kings leading scorer Jeff Carter, but he stopped the puck with his chest and then snared it out of the air at 10:45.

Unsung performance of the game

Sami Vatanen led the Ducks with seven hits in 24:56 of ice time.

They said it

"You have to look at the team game and the number of chances we gave up. We were well under 10. ... We didn't spend a lot of time in the defensive zone except for a few flurries, and when they did, we kept everything to the outside." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
"We threw a lot of pucks at the net that either got covered by the goalie, or the rebound goes to them." -- Kings defenseman Drew Doughty

Need to know

Kings coach Darryl Sutter changed his defensive pairings in an attempt to spark Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez. Muzzin entered the game a Kings-worst minus-17 and Martinez second-worst at minus -15. Neither was on the ice for Manson's goal. "We have a couple defensemen that are having really tough times this season, so we split them," Sutter said. … The Ducks are 18-0-0 this season when allowing one or no goals. … Sutter remains one win from tying Andy Murray for first on the Kings' all-time list (215). …. Anaheim has won 13 of the past 18 regular-season games against the Kings. Twelve of the past 17 have been decided by one goal.

What's next

Kings:At the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-W,
NHL.TV
)
Ducks: At the Arizona Coyotes on Monday (9 p.m. ET; SN1, FS-A, PRIME,
NHL.TV
)