Former Duck Corey Perry boosts Kings, but they fall in Southland rivalry

Many people go home for Thanksgiving weekend. But for Corey Perry, Friday’s return was more than embarrassing.

One of the most decorated players in Ducks history, Perry was greeted with a handful of boos when he wore a Kings sweater at Honda Center for the first time. Two hours later, he left, carrying the sting of a Ducks victory that saw his former team recover from deficits three times before winning the first rivalry game of the season 5-4 in a shootout.

“Great comeback,” said winger Chris Kreider, whose second-period power-play goal got the Ducks going. “Good job fighting back. It’s definitely a confident feeling.”

Leo Carlsson, who endured two dismal losing seasons during Anaheim’s long post-Perry rebuild, had two assists and the tying goal with 91 seconds left in regulation for the Ducks, who trailed 4-2 with less than 10 minutes to play.

The Kings’ Jacob Moverare blocks a pass from Duck Mason McTavish (23) to Beckett Sennecke (45) Friday at Honda Center.

(Harry Comment/Getty Images)

“It’s a different team,” Carlsson said. “I’m hungry. Different mentality too. So it’s been great so far this season.”

Only Ryan Getzlaf played more games for the Ducks than Perry, who left Anaheim in 2019 after 14 seasons, beginning a scoreless NHL tour that saw him play for five teams before signing a free agent contract with the Kings last summer.

The Ducks have not posted a winning record since his departure.

But after Friday’s win, they lead the division and are off to their best start in more than a decade. The Ducks are second in the Western Conference in wins (15), second in the NHL in goals (89), fourth in the conference in points (31) and were tied for fourth in points (31). For Carlsson, meanwhile, his 13th goal and 19th and 20th assists of the season on Friday left him 20, putting him tied for fourth in the league with 33 points.

The Ducks’ other goals Friday came from Olen Zellweger in the second period and Pavel Mintyukov in the third.

Scores for the Kings came from Alex Laferrière, Kevin Fiala, Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson. With the point they gained by extending the game, the Kings moved up the highway Friday afternoon in second place in the Pacific Division, two points behind the Ducks.

Corey Perry of the Kings will be present during the second period against the Ducks at the Honda Center on Thursday.

(Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images)

And, surprisingly, they have Perry to thank for that.

“He’s an important piece for us right now,” said center Philip Danault. “He’s not the fastest guy on the ice, but he’s so smart. He gets in the territory, he scores goals. He gets in the opponent’s head.

“He’s probably one of the biggest reasons we win.”

Since leaving Anaheim, Perry has left the Honda Center visitors’ bench several times. So Friday’s game wasn’t necessarily the one he had circled on his calendar.

“It was home,” he said before the match. “I have nothing but great things to say.”

After missing the start of the season following knee surgery, Perry was activated last month on the same day that captain Anze Kopitar was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury. And he took over immediately, scoring the first of his seven goals – good for second on the team – in his second game. He also has six assists, is fourth on the team with 13 points and is averaging more than 14 minutes of play for the second time since leaving Anaheim.

“You know, it’s fun,” said Perry, who is almost halfway to his point total from a season ago. “This is what we do for a living.”

Perry, 40, is the second-oldest player in the NHL. But with a Stanley Cup, an MVP award, a scoring title and two Olympic gold medals in his trophy case, he has a resume that few players can match. Yet the Ducks bought out the final two seasons and $8.625 million of his contract in 2019, part of a rebuild that saw the franchise go through three coaches and three general managers without posting a winning record.

“Now it’s seven years later. I don’t know anyone on the team,” Perry said of the Ducks, who have the second-youngest roster in the Western Conference. “It’s changed so much that it’s a new band.”

Ducks center Mason McTavish scores the game-winning goal in a shootout against the Kings on Friday at Honda Center.

(William Liang/AP)

And new coach Joel Quenneville, who has a history of success coaching young players, has this new group playing with confidence.

“We’ll never give up,” said Carlsson, one of six Ducks under 23. “That’s the mentality.”

Laferrière started the scoring late in the first period, parking in front of the goal and knocking the puck past Ducks goaltender Ville Husso, who made two big saves in the shootout on the day the Ducks announced that No. 1 goaltender Lukas Dostal would miss two to three weeks with an upper-body injury.

Kreider equalized seconds after a power play midway through the second period, then Fiala and Zellweger traded goals just 59 seconds apart to send the teams into the second intermission tied 2-2.

Turcotte’s first goal of the season on a sideline pass gave the Kings the lead again early in the third period before Edmundson doubled the lead on a slap shot from outside the right faceoff circle. He was helped by Perry’s presence in front of goal, masking Husso on the shot.

However, the Kings did not score again, allowing the Ducks to force overtime on goals from Mintyukov and Carlsson, whose tying score came after his team pulled Husso to get an extra attacker.

“It was fun,” Mason McTavish said of his first morning of rivalry, which drew a sold-out crowd of 17,174. “It was loud. There was a lot of energy in the building. So it was a lot of fun, and obviously even more fun to come away with the two points.”