There were distinct flickers of playoff-like hate, here and there Saturday night at Staples Center.
You had Kings forward Jeff Carter and Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin snapping and taking jabs at each other behind the play in the first period with Carter later clearing out the defenseman along the boards.
Then there was the game-within-a-game battle between Ducks star forward Corey Perry and Kings defenseman Robyn Regehr, flaring again at the end of the second period.
BOX SCORE: Ducks 2, Kings 1
This may have been short of a true preview of what could possibly be a first-ever playoff matchup between the Ducks and the Kings. It was more like Playoff Lite, a 2-1 win by the Ducks.
There was a controversial moment with 6:23 remaining when an apparent goal by Kings center Anze Kopitar was waved off because it was ruled there was incidental contact between Kings forward Marian Gaborik and Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen.
Fans threw debris on the ice in protest.
Gaborik said he had not seen the replay of the controversial play.
"They called it that I touched the goalie before the puck went in, but I don't know," he said.
Kings Coach Darryl Sutter kept his summation of the waved-off goal short, saying: "Gaborik trying to get out of the way of the goalie."
Said Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau: "They ran right into our goalie. I've seen so many, a lot less things called for penalties. I'm surprised they didn't get a penalty. We knew automatically, that there was no way that was going to count."
The Kings were without their No. 1 goalie Jonathan Quick, who has flu but was able to serve as backup to Martin Jones, and captain Dustin Brown, who also has been unwell.
Anaheim was minus Teemu Selanne, but that was not a surprise because the Ducks have been resting him when they have been in back-to-back situations. A significant loss for the Ducks was the absence of defenseman Cam Fowler, who suffered a lower-body injury in their 6-4 win on Friday night at Colorado.
This time, the heroes were unlikely ones.
Anaheim's goal-scorers were not the likes of captain Ryan Getzlaf or Perry. But it was fourth-liner Tim Jackman in the first period and Patrick Maroon in the second, who had a combined eight goals coming into this game, scoring for the Ducks.
Getzlaf talked about the Ducks' immediate response after losing to the lowly Calgary Flames, 7-2, on Wednesday night.
"We had a pretty spirited conversation in the locker room during that game," he said. "At the end of it we tried to just scrap that game. During the game, we talked amongst ourselves about what we were doing wrong.
"Obviously, our guys responded tremendously and that's all we can really ask. You're going to have those games from time to time. The response is what we're looking for."
The Ducks' immediate response to adversity was impressive.
"What I've said the whole time is that when you have those downfall games where you don't play well, you can easily pack it up and take the next couple off and try to find your way back," Getzlaf said. "Our guys didn't do that. They did a great job responding and played two good hockey teams."
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