KINGS PUT UP A FIGHT VS. DUCKS BUT ANAHEIM ENDS UP WINNING IN SO DUCKS 3, KINGS 2 (SO).

Byline: RICH HAMMOND 

Staff Writer

In one of those what-was-he-thinking moments, the Kings' Lubomir Visnovsky, listed -- generously -- at 5-foot-10 and 188 pounds, went charging after Travis Moen, the Ducks' 6-2, 216-pound enforcer.

After some initial clutching, pushing and yelling, Moen dumped Visnovsky to the ground with a shove, and could there have been a better metaphor for the way the Kings' and Ducks' seasons have gone?

The Ducks have spent the entire season near the top of the Western Conference standings while the Kings have sunk to the bottom, but the Kings showed Saturday that they still have some fight left in them.

In the latest round of a cross-town battle often described as tepid, the Kings and Ducks played the roles of bickering neighbors and wore a path to the penalty box.

Between scrums, they played some entertaining hockey, and the Ducks beat the Kings 3-2 in a shootout in front of a crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center.

Kings center Anze Kopitar tied the score at 2-2 with 5:14remaining in the third period, and the Ducks took the extra point in the fifth round of the shootout when Corey Perry beat Kings goalie Mathieu Garon.

"You fake a shot, and he's going to go down," Perry said of Garon. "(Teemu) Selanne asked me what I was going to do. I had a game plan. I had to fake a shot to freeze him."

Perry's shot ended a game that had a contentious first period. The teams pushed and bickered after almost every whistle and accumulated three misconduct penalties and 58 total penalty minutes.

"It's just a rivalry game," Kings center Derek Armstrong said. "They're playing well, and we're playing better, and it's just that time of the year and a game between two rivals."

The Kings suffered a loss in the first period when team captain Mattias Norstrom went down with a sprained knee and did not return. Norstrom will attempt to play in tonight's rematch in Anaheim.

As he walked out of the dressing room with a slight limp, Norstrom said he suffered the injury during a scrum in the corner. Coach Marc Crawford said no MRI on the knee would be necessary.

"He's going to give it a try (tonight)," Crawford said.

So Norstrom wasn't around to see the end of a back-and-forth battle. All five games between the Kings and Ducks this season have been decided by one goal, and the Ducks have won four of them.

"I'm shocked they are so far down in the standings," Selanne said of the Kings. "They have a better team than (is reflected) in the standings. They work hard."

Alexander Frolov gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with eight seconds left in the first period.

Selanne tied the score 3:22 into the second period. The goal was Selanne's 300th as a Duck, which tied the franchise record set by Paul Kariya.

Kings goalie Sean Burke, who has a stellar 2.16 goals-against average since being claimed off waivers from Tampa bay, got the night off as the Kings turned to Garon, who looked to get back on track.

Garon, who missed nine games last month with a broken finger, had made only one start since his return, when he allowed four goals in a loss to Washington, but he fared better against the Ducks.

Through two periods, Garon stopped 17 of 18 shots. The Ducks outshot the Kings 11-3in the third period and took a 2-1 lead when Chris Kunitz scored 5:48 into the period. Garon stopped 32 of 34 shots for the game.

"I had a good week of practice, and I felt much better than last time," Garon said.

Garon held up well early as the rough first period went mostly the Kings' way.

Frolov had given the Kings the lead, with his 10th goal in his past 13 games, at the end of a rough-and-tumble first period that featured pushing and shoving after almost every whistle.

The chippy play reached a peak nine minutes into the period, when equipment went flying in the Kings' zone and a handful of shoving matches broke out. Twenty-four penalties minutes were issued, including misconduct penalties to the Kings' Aaron Miller and the Ducks' Samuel Pahlsson.

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who allowed four goals against Phoenix on Thursday, rebounded nicely, held up under early pressure and stopped 30 of 32 shots for the victory.

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Photo:

The Kings' Dustin Brown, left, is hit in the face by the Ducks' Chris Pronger during Saturday's game.

Edna T. Simpson/Daily News

Box:

KINGS vs. DUCKS

-- Associated Press