Ducks host Kings in first Freeway Faceoff of the season

With Friday’s stolen point in their pockets, the Ducks left Colorado and returned home to host the Kings for the season’s first Freeway Faceoff at Honda Center on Sunday.

In Denver, the Ducks built a 2-0 lead from a puck that Leo Carlsson squeaked across the line during a goal-mouth scramble and off a Ryan Strome tally late in the first period that came after the puck should have been blown dead when it hit the netting behind the Colorado goal. They retroceded that lead but forced overtime with 12.6 seconds left when Coloradoan Troy Terry knotted a contest that the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon ended in the additional frame.

Even that consolation point would have been impossible without the octopal play of Lukáš Dostál in goal, where he halted 45 pucks.

“He was our best player, and it wasn’t close to the next guy,” Terry told Victory+. about Dostal “He was the only reason we got that point tonight.”

Terry has notched a goal in each of the Ducks’ past three games, picking up the lone marker in a loss to Vegas and igniting the scoring in an overtime win over Utah HC in the Ducks’ home opener. Carlsson has three points in his past two outings and Dostál has yet to lose in regulation this year, posting a 2-0-1 mark that included a shutout and was backed by a .927 save percentage.

In Colorado, the Ducks were without center Isac Lundeström, who sustained an upper-body injury in the home opener, and last year’s leading scorer, Frank Vatrano, who joined his wife Rebecca in anticipation of the birth of their second daughter. Both should be considered doubtful for Sunday’s match.

Though the Ducks flirted with being tripled up by the Avs in shots on goal, another bright spot was rookie Cutter Gauthier, who had been essentially benched in the previous game. The rookie forward finished with a plus-two rating and played three more minutes in total than he did against Utah.

“Cutter was way better. He was skating, you could see he was determined,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin told reporters. “He was driving the puck wide; he did a lot of nice things.”

Gauthier, Carlsson and company hope to be part of a new era with greater parity in this rivalry. The Kings have won nine of the previous 10 grudge matches. The two teams have met just once in the playoffs, in 2014, the same year that the Ducks shut out the Kings at a historic outdoor game at Dodger Stadium. The Kings would laugh last, however, surmounting a 3-2 series deficit to advance and ultimately win their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.

KINGS AT DUCKS

When: 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Honda Center

How to watch: Bally Sports West, Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)