Granlund scores in OT, lifts Ducks past Kings

ANAHEIM -- Mikael Granlund scored with 57.4 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Anaheim Ducks a 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Honda Center on Saturday.

Granlund scored on a wrist shot from the right circle after keeping the puck on a 3-on-1 rush. It was Granlund’s ninth goal of the season.

Beckett Sennecke got the assist after preventing Kevin Fiala from getting a shot off on a breakaway at the other end of the ice, lifting the forward’s stick and sending the puck to the blue line to prevent Adrian Kempe from being able to follow up. Sennecke then raced back to join the rush, forcing Kings goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Drew Doughty to account for him while Granlund had the puck.

“That’s the effort we need,” Granlund said of Sennecke’s play. “We’re giving us a chance to win these games, and getting those persistent (efforts) to be able to win these games. And that’s what I mean by playing right. We’re playing the right way right now, and we need to keep doing that.”

Mason McTavish scored, Ville Husso made 17 saves, and the Ducks (24-21-3) have won three straight following a nine-game losing streak (0-8-1). They won 3-2 in a shootout against the Kings in Los Angeles on Friday.

“I mean, we knew it was going to be a big week for us, big weekend for us. And we came through,” Granlund said.

Anaheim has allowed four goals in its past three games after giving up 45 goals during the winless streak, which included conceding at least five goals in seven instances.

“Way more predictability in our game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “The effort’s been consistent, high end.”

Kempe had a power-play goal and Forsberg made 31 saves for the Kings (19-16-13), who are 1-2-4 in their past seven games.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I have the answer to that, to be honest, because if I did, I don’t think we would keep being in the same position every game,” Los Angeles forward Warren Foegele said after the Kings fell to 12-5-13 in one-goal games. “At the end of the day, we didn’t get the job done. We didn’t get the two points, and it’s not good enough.”

The Ducks went up 1-0 at 6:11 of the first period when McTavish scored on a wrist shot from the left circle set up by Olen Zellweger off the rush after a neutral-zone turnover.

Kempe tied it for the Kings at 5:39 of the second period during a 5-on-3 power play. He got his 16th goal of the season on a wrist shot from the right circle, ending a season-long six-game goal drought.

Los Angeles was 1-for-6 on the power play, getting five chances in the second period. Anaheim was 0-for-3.

“I don’t think we executed well at all,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said of his power play. “It’s a nice 5-on-3 goal, that’s a high level of execution, but outside of that, I don’t think we executed. We didn’t generate enough rubber at the net. … If there was a chance for us to win the game, that would have been it, but we didn’t execute there.”

The Kings are 7-13 in games decided in overtime or a shootout, and their 12 regulation wins are the second-fewest in the NHL. The Vancouver Canucks are last with 10 regulation wins.

“We’re trying our best, and we want to win so bad," Los Angeles defenseman Brandt Clarke said. "It’s just not going across the goal line for us right now, and that’s definitely frustrating."

NOTES: The Kings played their third straight overtime game and their 20 overtime games lead the league. Los Angeles and Anaheim went to overtime in three of their four games this season. ... Granlund got his seventh career overtime goal, tying Jari Kurri and Sami Salo for fifth-most by a Finland-born player in league history. … Jeffrey Viel made his Ducks debut after being acquired in a trade with the Boston Bruins on Friday. He had one shot in 7:48 of ice time and had a five-minute penalty for fighting Kings center Samuel Helenius.