RIVALRY ON ICE COULD TURN RED HOT NHL: YOUNG KINGS USING STANLEY CUP CHAMP DUCKS AS MEASURING STICK.

Byline: Matthew Kredell

Staff Writer

During tonight's Kings-Ducks game in Anaheim, the announcer at Honda Center will unveil the new name for Southern California's hockey rivalry.

The finalists, as voted upon by fans on the Internet, are "Ice-5 Series," "Freeway Face-Off," "Freezeway Series" and "Crosstown Showdown."

Uninspiring choices, to say the least, but it's not like the teams have provided the material necessary for an epic moniker.

In the 13 completed seasons since the Ducks joined the NHL, the teams never have made the playoffs together. The Ducks have five playoff appearances and the Kings four over that period, but they never are good at the same time.

"Until we get in the playoffs, it's really not much of a rivalry," Kings captain Rob Blake said. "We need to meet in a playoff atmosphere, with both teams competitive enough to be in that situation."

Other than location, the rivalry consists of a few entertaining but ultimately inconsequential regular-season overtime games.

That could change this year.

The Ducks (7-8-3), though off to a bit of a slow start, are the defending Stanley Cup champions. The young and improving Kings (8-8-0) have won sevenof their past 10 and enter tonight's game coming off the sort of comeback that can spark a season -- erasing a 4-0deficit in the final 7:14 of the third period Saturday to beat Dallas 6-5 in overtime.

Entering back-to-back games against each other, with the teams playing Thursday at Staples Center, it's the Kings who are looking at these games as having added importance.

In the Honda Center rafters, Kings players will see the Stanley Cup banner this organization has been seeking for 40 years.

"We use them as a measuring stick," Blake said. "They're the Stanley Cup champions, and they are going to be there all season long."

For the Ducks, the Kings are just another team they need to get through to defend their title.

"I don't know if we look forward to it," Ducks forward Chris Kunitz said. "You do kind of know when they're on the calendar. They're exciting games to be a part of because our fans enjoy them so much. They are good atmosphere games that everybody likes to play in."

It used to be different.

Before the Ducks made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002-03, they were like the little brother envious of the hold his more-established sibling had on the Southern California hockey scene. They were the ones with something to prove.

"When the team struggled here in my early years, there seemed to be a lot more Kings fans than Ducks fans," center Andy McDonald, the Ducks' longest-tenured player, said of games in Anaheim. "That has kind of switched a little bit."

The Ducks have shown some staying power, making the Stanley Cup Finals in two of the past four seasons and the playoffs in three of them.

As long as the Ducks maintain that level, the Kings and their young guns -- forwards Anze Kopitar (20 years old), Michael Cammalleri (25), Dustin Brown (23), Alexander Frolov (25), Patrick O'Sullivan (22) and defenseman Jack Johnson (20) -- figure to make this a real rivalry at some point.

"It really doesn't matter that they won last year," O'Sullivan said. "It's a new season. We're worried about our own game. It's going to be intense, there's no doubt about that."

J.P. Hoornstra contributed.

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KINGS/DUCKS

TODAY

Kings at Ducks, 7p.m., Honda Center.

TV/Radio: FSN West, Prime Ticket; 830-AM, 1260-AM.

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Photo:

(1 -- color) The Ducks' Chris Pronger, left, and the Kings' A nze Kopitar will renew acquaintances when their teams play each other tonight.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

(2) The Kings' Lubomir Visnovsky pushes the Ducks' Corey Perry into the boards during their game in London in September.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images