LOS ANGELES – The Kings couldn’t recover from an early deficit in their 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night at STAPLES Center.
Anaheim, coming into the game rolling on a four-game win streak and having won 11 of their previous 15 contests, took firm grasp of the game when they netted a pair of goals in the opening period.
Ryan Getzlaf got the Ducks on the board nine minutes in when he beat Jonathan Quick with a shot high to the glove side.
Getzlaf connected with David Perron again three minutes later, this time assisting on Perron’s marker which gave Anaheim a 2-0 lead.
Less than three minutes into the second, Ryan Garbutt beat Quick with a wrist shot high to the top right corner to put the Ducks up three.
Following Garbutt’s tally, Quick was pulled in favor of Jhonas Enroth. Quick made six saves on the nine shots he faced during the first 22:41 minutes of action.
The Kings, granted a power play moments after Quick’s departure from the game, seemed to gain a bit of life when they connected for a goal on their first man-advantage sequence of the evening.
Working the puck along the right sideboards, Anze Kopitar chipped a pass to Drew Doughty, who was atop the right point. Doughty, after settling the puck down, fired a wrist shot that caromed off the leg of Tyler Toffoli, and up and over John Gibson to cut the Ducks’ lead to two.
Toffoli, scoring his 23rd goal of the season, tied the career-high he set last season.
Anaheim regained their three-goal lead at the midway mark of the second when Hampus Lindholm connected on a Ducks power play, beating Jhonas Enroth with a slap shot from the point.
With 24 seconds left in regulation, Alec Martinez squeaked home his seventh goal of the season to cut Anaheim’s lead back to two, but his marker was no threat to the Ducks’ lead with the slim amount of time left in regulation.
Anze Kopitar (2A) led all Kings players in points scored (2), Drew Doughty, Kyle Clifford and Dustin Brown in shots taken (4), Luke Schenn in hits delivered (8), Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez in shots blocked (3), and Drew Doughty in minutes played (26:17). Jonathan Quick made six saves, Jhonas Enroth 14 in the loss.
The Kings now venture off on their longest road trip of the season, which will begin Tuesday night when they take on the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden, where the puck is scheduled to drop just after 4:00 PM PST.