The Kings, who had taken their previous eight meetings with the Ducks, including two this season, saw their three-game winning streak come to an end. The Ducks got the ball rolling on a modest two-game points streak.

The Nashville Predators clinched a playoff berth with an overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets, leaving the Kings and Vegas Golden Knights still in search of a firm position in the postseason. The Kings’ chance to avenge two straight first-round playoff losses to second-place Edmonton is at risk, since Vegas is one point behind them for third place in the Pacific Division with a game in hand.

Frank Vatrano, Alex Killorn and Trevor Zegras each broke out goal-scoring celebrations for the Ducks. Ryan Strome contributed two assists, with he and Vatrano being on the ice for all three Ducks goals. Lukáš Dostál made his fifth consecutive start, moving to 2-2-1 in those games on the strength of 36 saves.

Akil Thomas scored the Kings’ lone goal and Cam Talbot made 24 saves.

For the most part, the Ducks said they were unaware of their role as spoiler, though rookie Leo Carlsson continued to show awareness beyond that of even his more seasoned peers.

“I heard about it, yeah. It’s nice to destroy their hopes a little bit,” Carlsson said.

The Kings earned the game’s first lead and played their style early on, but halfway through the first period their game flattened a bit, with costly turnovers and untimely penalties fettering their efforts.

“We wanted an easy game, that was clear, and we got an easy game, except the other team beat us,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said.

The Ducks pulled away with 14:10 to play when Zegras stripped Jordan Spence at the red line and strode ahead for an unassisted goal, his fifth of an injury-plagued season. Zegras nearly scored again with 7:23 remaining when his spectacular skyward deflection dinged the crossbar, with the Kings drawing no nearer.

After going scoreless in his first three games back after recovering from ankle surgery, Zegras has accumulated five points in his past five games, including his first goal in that stretch Tuesday.

“It’s tough to jump back in and play the game that you know that you can play. For him, the more games he gets, the better he’s getting,” Killorn said. “Tonight, he had that huge goal and he made a ton of good plays out there.”

A mere 82 seconds into the final frame, the Ducks appeared to take their first lead on their first power play of the night, but Killorn’s redirection goal was disallowed after a coach’s challenge determined that he had entered the zone offside.

In something of a “puck don’t lie” moment, Killorn scored 29 seconds later. He gave the puck up for Cam Fowler at the left point, received it back and curled into the high slot for a wrist shot under the bar and his 18th goal of the campaign.

“I think I’m the one who put myself offside, so it’s frustrating. It’s hard to score goals in this league, so whenever they get taken away it’s pretty tough,” Killorn said. “I was happy that I was able to get it back quickly.”

The second period yielded no goals and only one high-danger chance. Perhaps the strongest late-period play was Matt Roy’s blast on net followed by his screen and tip of Adrian Kempe’s subsequent shot attempt.

Through 40 minutes, the two sides were knotted at one, just as they had been after 20.

The Ducks found an equalizer with 2:14 left in the opening stanza. Viktor Arvidsson’s clearing attempt got gobbled at the blue line by Strome, leaving Arvidsson, among others, out of position as the puck moved to Radko Gudas and then a wide-open Vatrano at the net front. Vatrano smacked the puck into Talbot’s pad and then into the gaping left side of the net for his team-topping 33rd goal of the season.

That came on the heels off a pair of near misses after Olen Zellweger hit the post and a golden opportunity off a two-on-one was thwarted by Drew Doughty. Troy Terry waited out Talbot near the right post before sliding the puck across to Killorn for a one-timer with Talbot scrambling to recover as Doughty slid to the ice to block the shot and foil a near-certain score.

“Our first 10, 12 minutes were great, playing Kings hockey, and we kind of drifted away from that,” Kings center Blake Lizotte said. “A few guys were on their own page more than we’d like. And you have to give them credit too. They have some skilled players and took advantage of our mistakes.”

There was no doubt about the second career goal for Thomas, who has played sparingly but impressively since joining the Kings four games ago. Just 5:50 into the contest, Trevor Lewis chipped the puck into the Ducks’ zone and crashed the net, leaving a stuff-in attempt inside the blue paint for Thomas to push home amid four defenders.

“He’s been a great addition to our line and a really easy player to play with,” Lewis said of Thomas.

Lewis, a veteran of many Freeway Faceoffs in his 16 NHL seasons, said a loss to a less competitive club in which his team allowed two goals off turnovers and a de facto power-play marker to Killorn just as Trevor Moore’s penalty expired served as a reminder to stay sharp.

“These are tough games. They’re not in the playoffs but they have a lot of skill and they’re playing freely,” Lewis said. “So, you’ve got to make sure you’re on top of your game and not taking them lightly.”

O’Ree, who had broken the NHL’s color barrier as its first Black player with the Boston Bruins in 1958 (a decade and a half before another would arrive in the pros) became a goal-scoring champion in the old Western Hockey League, partially because of a move to right wing, where he could finally see oncoming passes. O’Ree, now 88, was struck with a puck at age 19, costing him vision in his right eye, a limitation he kept a secret to continue playing hockey. So committed was O’Ree that his parents died thinking he was able to see from both eyes.

“The dreams and goals that I set for myself, seemingly were gone,” O’Ree said. “I got out of the hospital, and within five weeks I’m back on the ice. I’m a left-handed shot playing left wing, so to compensate, I had to turn my head all the way around to the right to pick the puck up. I came down and I was missing the net, and I said ‘just forget about what you can’t see and concentrate on what you can see.’”

Ahead of Tuesday’s Freeway Faceoff between the Ducks and Kings, he extended another type of commitment, his steadfast dedication to growing the game across regional and identity lines alike, as a diverse collection of players from all over North America gathered in Anaheim for on-ice work, trips to pro games and meetings with O’Ree as well as Ducks star Troy Terry, among others.

“You don’t have to spend a lot of time just meeting them for the first time and shaking their hands. These kids will never forget coming here to Anaheim,” O’Ree said. “Fifteen years from now, you could ask them, I bet you could tell you the hotel they stayed in, who they played with and everything else, because things like this mean so much to them.”

O’Ree has been honored with such distinctions as the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and the Order of Canada. He’s also seen players he’s inspired move on to magnificence. Though the number of Black, Asian, Latino, indigenous and other minority NHL players has remained low, Black players have become a head coach (Dirk Graham, who was also the first of four Black NHL team captains), a Norris Trophy winner (P.K. Subban), a Vezina Trophy winner (Grant Fuhr), an All-Star Game MVP (Wayne Simmonds), an Art Ross Trophy winner (Jarome Iginla) and, most recently, a general manager (Mike Grier).

While O’Ree cherishes the esteem and gratitude he’s felt from subsequent pioneers, he also looked forward to meeting new trailblazers, such as Arcadia’s own Jason Robertson, a Filipino-American who has become an unstoppable force for the Dallas Stars while his brother Nick has cracked the Toronto Maple Leafs’ roster.

“Today, you’ve got East Indian players, West Indian players, Asian players. If you don’t have Mr. O’Ree breaking that color barrier, I don’t think that happens,” said Simmonds, who began his NHL career with the Kings. “It’s not only just for black hockey players – obviously he’s a big inspiration for us – but he helped break down a lot of different stereotypes.”

O’Ree has been very enthused to see the proliferation of participation in women’s hockey, from the grassroots level to the inaugural season of the PWHL.

“I’m so tickled about the growth of women’s sports. I’ve had girls at these Willie O’Ree weekends who have outshined the boys. You couldn’t tell, until they took their helmets off, that they were any different,” O’Ree said.

Even though his playing days ended about 45 years ago, O’Ree still logs plenty of miles in the air, using La Mesa as a launching pad to travel extensively, mostly through the U.S.

But as a young multi-sport athlete in New Brunswick, his initial crossing of Canada’s southern border was informative, formative and harrowing. He was invited to a minor-league baseball tryout for the Milwaukee Braves with their affiliate in Georgia, where O’Ree said he experienced bigotry, segregation and ugliness to which he had not been exposed. When he was cut from the team, O’Ree said he exhibited sadness but felt jubilation at the prospect of returning home.

“Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus. In five days on the bus, as we’re rambling up through the north, I start moving up on the bus,” O’Ree said. “Now I’m sitting at the center of the bus. I arrived in Bangor, Maine, and then I was sitting at the front of the bus. Another three hours, I’m in my hometown and I stepped off the bus and said to myself, ‘Willie, forget about baseball, concentrate on hockey.’”

O’Ree was traded to the Blades at a time when he was still in the continuum of NHL-affiliated clubs, which the Blades were not. But the ostensible demotion took O’Ree to the region he’s called home since the 1960s, where he met his wife, created his family and cemented his presence in several communities.

“The best move I ever made was coming here,” O’Ree said.

“Being from the eastern part of Canada where there’s eight feet of snow everywhere you look in the wintertime, coming out here, I fell in love with the climate. The team I played for treated me well and I just fell in love with the place. I got married here in 1969. I said, ‘this is great.’”

O’Ree has been a fixture at rink openings, clinics and outreach efforts, especially in Southern California, where hockey was a niche sport with no top-level pro franchises when O’Ree was first getting acclimated.

“I couldn’t imagine in the ’60s how hockey would blossom. But I knew, when Wayne Gretzky came to the Kings, hockey started to flourish,” O’Ree said inside Irvine’s Great Park Ice. “More kids had the opportunity to play, and I could tell then that this was going to be a booming place for these kids to play as they built more of these facilities.”

In addition to that transformation in Southern California, O’Ree has seen players he met as amateurs mature through NHL careers and even enter into management and media, with players like Anson Carter, Kevin Weekes and Subban all assuming prominent roles in broadcasting.

“We all had a dream to play in the NHL and win the Stanley Cup, but throughout my career I’ve realized that I have more responsibility and in a different way than some of those players can realize. More and more are realizing it now. That’s not a burden, that’s not something that you carry on your shoulders, it’s just a responsibility,” Subban said.

“At the end of the day, that’s going to outgrow the game. It brings it back to Willie O’Ree once again, who is such a great people person, someone that anyone can feel comfortable talking to and someone that the whole hockey world has tremendous respect for. I think everything starts with him.”

KINGS AT DUCKS

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Honda Center

TV: Bally Sports SoCal, KCAL (Ch. 9)

Rookie Leo Carlsson and All-Star Frank Vatrano each lit the lamp twice for Anaheim, with Nikita Nesterenko adding a goal. Trevor Zegras, Alex Killorn and Isac Lundeström all dished out two assists. Lukáš Dostál stopped 26 shots.

Leading scorer Robert Thomas paced St. Louis with a goal and three assists. Captain Brayden Schenn contributed a goal and an assist. Zachary Bolduc, Pavel Buchnevich and Matthew Kessel each had a goal. Jordan Kyrou chipped in three assists before scoring the shootout’s lone goal. Jordan Binnington made 33 saves.

“It was a good atmosphere, it was a great game and we just ended up on the right side of it. But I liked how we came back, I liked the way we responded and played that game,” Vatrano said.

The shootout opened with a skyward backhand attempt by Zegras hitting the post. Kyrou had no such issues on his own backhander, which became the shootout-winner.

Overtime was played with vigor and a pair of solid chances near its conclusion for Olen Zellweger, who was poke checked, and Troy Terry, whose short-side shot in the dying embers nearly earned the Ducks a second point.

Carlsson knotted the score at five with 3:51 remaining in regulation when he zoomed toward the inner edge of the right circle to snipe a snapshot inside the left post for the 19-year-old’s 12th goal of the season.

“When he gets the puck, he’s [trying] to score a goal, whether it’s coming off of his stick or somebody else scores the goal, he’s just got that mentality,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “When he’s on his game, you see that. The first two periods, he was just OK. In the third period, he was like, ‘I’m taking the game over,’ and he did.”

Vatrano scored his second goal of the evening and 32nd of the season, adding intrigue to the final 11:56 of regulation. Zegras fended off two checkers behind the net, leaving him draped over the nylon with his left arm balancing him against the cage. With only his right arm on his stick, he shoveled the puck in front for Vatrano, who kicked it to his stick and backhanded it home.

“He’s a very unique player because he sees the ice so well,” Cronin said of Zegras. “Somebody made a comment to me that he reminded him a little bit of Magic Johnson, his teammates sometimes got hit in the head with the basketball because they weren’t ready for the pass.”

The Ducks seized momentum previously, but then handed it right back in the first 2:40 of the third period.

Just 49 seconds after they scored on the power play, Vatrano took an interference penalty and the Blues kept the Ducks at arm’s length Schenn’s two-swipe, power-play goal.

A mere 62 ticks into the final frame, the Ducks halved their deficit with a man-advantage marker. Terry fed Lundeström in the low slot, where his fanning on a one-timer proved fortuitous as the puck sailed to Carlsson at the back post for a tap-in tally, his 11th. Carlsson has three goals in his past two games, but his most recent goal before that was nestled uncomfortably between droughts of nine and 22 games.

“It’s like a ‘finally’ moment,’” Carlsson said. “It feels amazing to score goals again.”

“(GM Pat Verbeek), Cro, my dad, my mom, everyone tells me to shoot the puck more. Right now, it’s working,” he added.

Despite compelling underlying numbers for the Ducks, the Blues led 4-2 at the second intermission.

With 4:10 to play in the second period, the Blues got an insurance marker off a moderately paced counterattack that led to Buchnevich’s one-timer.

St. Louis reclaimed the lead just over two minutes earlier, cashing in on a power play. Thomas received the puck near the right-wing wall before gliding atop the right faceoff dot and rifling a shot through Schenn’s screen.

The Ducks found their second equalizer of the night 3:41 into the second stanza. Killorn took the puck to the net and his backhand bid sat inside the blue paint. Vatrano got his stick on the puck before Binnington knocked it in with his glove. Vatrano was credited with the goal and Killorn with his 500th career assist.

While Cronin lauded Killorn’s championship-seasoned poise, he said Vatrano had developed into his roster’s most reliable player.

“He does everything hard,” Cronin said. “He blocks shots, he kills penalties, he’s on the power play, he backchecks harder than anybody that we have on our team and he gets rewarded for it, because he gets goals.”

The visitors went to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes thanks to a late-period breakaway save on Ryan Strome by Binnington and, before that, Kessel’s first career goal.

Terry’s giveaway inside the offensive blue line nearly went for naught after Schenn mishandled a pass in the neutral zone, but the Blues salvaged the rush as Thomas found a trailing Kessel for a shot under the crossbar and inside the far post.

The Ducks had drawn even at 2:37 off a sequence where Nesterenko out-competed towering defenseman Colton Parayko, beginning with a board battle that won possession for the Ducks and ending with a forceful effort to beat Parayko to Gustav Lindström’s rebound before popping it past Binnington. Nesterenko’s second career goal came against the same team that surrendered his first on March 25, 2023.

The Blues got on the board just 11 seconds into the contest. After winning the opening faceoff, they ended up with a three-on-two rush as Radko Gudas was forced to defend Thomas and Bolduc. Thomas moved the puck to Bolduc, who let fly with a wrist shot to the far side for the rookie’s third NHL goal.

Next up will be a Freeway Faceoff with the Kings at Honda Center on Tuesday, following a shootout loss to a team that had effectively been eliminated from playoff contention with its loss Saturday.

“Now, what happens when we play L.A.?” Cronin said. “They’re still fighting and clawing for positioning, I think it’s going to be a different atmosphere.”

Now, they’ll pivot into a Sunday showdown with the desperation-fueled St. Louis Blues, who entered their back-to-back set with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and Ducks on Sunday seven points behind the Kings for the final Western Conference postseason spot.

“We played a couple good games in a row in Vancouver and Calgary, then (Friday) we looked flatter than water on a plate,” coach Greg Cronin said after the 3-1 loss to Seattle in which the Ducks put just six shots on net through the final 40 minutes. “We’ve got to figure out how to get energized and play a team that’s scratching and clawing for a playoff berth.”

While the Ducks’ playoff hopes dimmed long ago, they’ll have the opportunity to bury St. Louis and potentially impact seeding in a matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights as well as two meetings with the Kings in their final five games.

“We worked hard throughout the whole season, so we don’t want to just mail those games in,” veteran defenseman Radko Gudas said. “We want to make sure we leave it all out there and show the young guys that these games matter for everybody.”

On Friday, it was not a seasoned player but a teenage rookie serving as an exemplar for the Ducks. Leo Carlsson scored their lone goal, setting himself up with a between-the-legs pass for a snipe from a challenging angle. His contributions, however, transcended the highlight reel.

“He was outworking people for pucks and outskating people,” Cronin said. “When you watch him play, if you’re on our team, you’re like ‘Wow, that guy’s a good hockey player and we’ve got to and try to mirror his effort.’”

“He’s got talent, obviously, but he works. He works to get pucks back, he works to backcheck and he works in the D zone. So, for me, he’s a good role model for the whole group and he’s only 19.”

On the injury front, Saturday’s practice carried on without Pavel Mintyukov, Max Jones and Mason McTavish, who sported a brace on his right leg at the facility. While that portends poorly for his availability Sunday, he discarded a walking boot to return from a separate lower-body injury last month. He, Mintyukov and Jones should all be considered doubtful.

Trevor Zegras appeared fine after an unspecified late-game issue Friday. He was adorned with a cut on his lip after taking a puck to the mouth during Saturday’s practice, though that should not impact his participation Sunday.

For St. Louis, its seven-point deficit and lack of a tiebreaker in hand against neither the Kings nor the top wild card, the Nashville Predators, essentially signify that they need to win out in their final six matches to make the playoffs.

Striking first has been paramount for the Blues. They’ve won 30 of 34 games when opening the scoring, 20 of 22 when leading at the first intermission and 27 of 28 with an edge after two periods. Conversely, they’ve won just 9 of 41 games when allowing the first goal and only four of 31 when trailing at the second intermission.

St. Louis at Ducks

When: 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Honda Center

TV: Bally Sports SoCal

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  Ducks center Leo Carlsson is congratulated as he skates by the bench after scoring a goal during the second period of their game against the Seattle Kraken on Friday night at Honda Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe, right, and Seattle Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury (27) vie for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks right wing Frank Vatrano (77) and Seattle Kraken right wing Eeli Tolvanen (20) collide while chasing the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks center Bo Groulx, right, and Seattle Kraken defenseman Justin Schultz (4) vie for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler, right, shoots past Seattle Kraken left wing Andre Burakovsky, front left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken center Shane Wright, center left, celebrates after his goal with the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Ducks, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken center Shane Wright, right, celebrates after his goal with center Jaden Schwartz, left, during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Ducks, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken left wing Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, left, and Ducks right wing Brett Leason, right, vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken centers Shane Wright, left, and Jaden Schwartz (17) vie for the puck against Ducks defenseman Olen Zellweger, right, during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken left wing Andre Burakovsky, right, and Ducks center Trevor Zegras, left, vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks defenseman Gustav Lindstrom chases the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken right wing Jordan Eberle, left, and Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler, right, vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Seattle Kraken left wing Brandon Tanev, front right, reacts after a collision with Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas (7) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks defenseman William Lagesson, left, hits the puck past Seattle Kraken left wing Tye Kartye (52) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks center Isac Lundestrom, right, and Seattle Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury vie for the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks center Isac Lundestrom, right, reaches for the puck as Seattle Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury defends during the third period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler, right, shoots against Seattle Kraken left wing Andre Burakovsky during the third period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks right wing Frank Vatrano, right, shoots against Seattle Kraken right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand, left, and center Matty Beniers during the third period of an NHL hockey game Friday, April 5, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

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  Ducks center Nikita Nesterenko, right, and Seattle Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak vie for the puck during the first period on Friday night at Honda Center. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

ANAHEIM — On their final legends night of the season, the Ducks trotted out former captain Ryan Getzlaf to a rousing ovation but the evening ultimately belonged to the NHL’s least storied franchise, the Seattle Kraken, as the third-year organization bested its hosts, 3-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.

The Kraken beat the Ducks in all four meetings this season, the last three coming since March 25.

Leo Carlsson scored the Ducks’ lone goal with no assist but plenty of bravado. Lukáš Dostál turned away 24 shots. Radko Gudas (upper-body injury) returned to action and in characteristic fashion as he delivered a booming hip check on Brandon Tanev in the second period. The Ducks were once again without Pavel Mintyukov and Max Jones, while Mason McTavish (lower-body injury) missed his first game since sustaining an injury in Calgary on Tuesday.

Seattle rookie Shane Wright doubled his career point total with two goals and an assist. Matty Beniers also scored a goal for Seattle and Oliver Bjorkstrand chipped in a pair of assists. Philipp Grubauer had 14 saves as the Ducks compiled just six shots in the final two-thirds of the match.

“From where I stood on the bench, it was Leo Carlsson and then a huge gap to the rest of the Anaheim Ducks tonight, huge,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “We didn’t do much, we didn’t generate much. He was the one guy who tried to make something happen [on] every play.”

Even down two scores with little choice but to open up their game, the Ducks couldn’t muster a possession or shot advantage, much less a goal in the third period.

In the second, a competitive opening 20 minutes gave way to tilted ice as Seattle turned in a domineering segment salvaged only by the late individual effort of Carlsson. Natural Stat Trick had both scoring chances and expected goals above 83% for Seattle, which earned 100% of the high-danger chances in the second period.

“In the second period, they played a good team game and we didn’t respond to it,” Cronin said. “We continued to turn pucks over, we didn’t defend well and we were lucky that it was only [3-1] after two.”

Carlsson found a puck that had been batted away from Troy Terry floating loose near the offensive blue line. The 19-year-old Swede, playing in his 50th NHL game, made a silky between-the-legs pass to himself to beat Wright before he skated into the inner portion of the right faceoff circle and rifled a dazzling wrist shot past Grubauer for an unassisted goal. The 10th career tally for 2023’s No. 2 overall pick arrived with 3:25 showing on the clock.

“I had a first-row seat for that one, so it was pretty cool,” Gudas said. “Seeing the angle he was shooting at, I would probably break both of my wrists if I tried to do that. It was nice to see him do these things and feel confident. I would like to see all of our young guys feel that confidence.”

Carlsson sliced into what had already become a 3-0 deficit at the 11:40 mark after a top rookie from last season, Calder Trophy winner Beniers, had Wright’s centering pass bank off his skate and past Dostál. Wright’s three-point night was his first career multipoint effort and gave him four points in three games since his recall from the minors on March 31.

“He was a confident player with the puck and he definitely did a good job on the defensive side as well, but a big piece of that is what you do with the puck once you get it back,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said of Wright.

Seattle had extended its edge to 2-0 just 2:29 into the period when Wright – the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft – struck a second time on a less-than-stellar defensive effort from the Ducks. A soft rim-around somehow covered the entire perimeter of the zone, eluding Cam Fowler, and went to Justin Schultz at the right point. His pass behind the net for Jaden Schwartz drew Fowler out of position at the net front, where Wright popped a short-side shot through Dostál completely unmolested.

“It was just lost coverage. One guy’s got one guy to cover, and he forgets he’s there. That’s just a completely blown coverage,” Cronin said.

The Ducks might have had the first period’s best scoring opportunity but Seattle scored its only goal, thanks to a deflection tally from a promising rookie and a sterling save from one of the Kraken’s first ever free-agent signings.

Wright scored his first goal of the night with 3:52 left in the frame when he curled from left faceoff dot to the right post to deflect home Bjorkstrand’s shot attempt.

“We lose a faceoff – which has been a real problem for us since the [trade] deadline, when we lost two centermen, [since then] we’ve had a hard time in the dot – then they score on that deflection,” Cronin said.

That was a go-ahead goal rather than an equalizer thanks to a desperate glove save by Grubauer after his skate was clipped, sending him to the ice just as Trevor Zegras blasted a one-timer in his direction.

Zegras sat the final 7:25 of Saturday’s outing, having dealt with a minor issue that withdrew him from the game briefly and getting lost in the special-teams shuffle late, Cronin said.

Leo

Between the legs to himself and SNIPE #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/nJTlpW3yfn

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) April 6, 2024

The award recognizes “the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey” and honors Masterton, the only player to die as a direct result of an injury sustained during NHL competition. Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, who returned to competition after a stroke for the second time in his career, was last year’s winner.

Both Arvidsson, a Swedish winger in his third campaign with the Kings, and Vaakanainen, a Finnish blue-liner whom the Ducks acquired near the 2022 trade deadline, have battled through multiple injuries and surgeries in recent seasons.

Arvidsson, whose up-and-down health was a significant reason the Nashville Predators traded their seventh-leading goal-scorer in franchise history to the Kings in 2021, underwent two major back surgeries between spring of 2022 and fall of 2023. Just 17 seconds into his fourth game back from his most recent rehabilitation, he sustained an unrelated lower-body injury that took him off the ice and put him back in the trainer’s room. The Kings have won nine of 12 games with Arvidsson in the lineup and all six games in which he’s registered at least one point.

“It’s been a battle, it’s been 12 months of rehab from different injuries and stuff like that,” Arvidsson told Kings blogger Zach Dooley. “A lot of early mornings, going to work every day, just trying to be positive and trying to kind of bring energy to the team and certain things. It’s a great honor [to be nominated] and I’m really happy that people thought about me.”

At 25, five years Arvidsson’s junior, Vaakanainen has also experienced more than his share of injury woes already at the NHL level. The former Boston first-rounder sustained a concussion while playing with the Bruins in just his second NHL game and then another in 2022. A hard spill into the boards cost him over a month of last season, a campaign that was ultimately cut short after 23 games when Vaakainen required hip surgery.

Though he’s had to play while recuperating and rehabilitating, he’s been available to the Ducks in every game this year and he has dressed in 65 of them. He’s formed a formidable shutdown pairing with veteran Radko Gudas, who was set to return Friday from an injury of his own, when they’ve been deployed together.

“Staying healthy and getting to play is a big thing,” Vaakanainen told Derek Lee of The Hockey News. “Just getting the reps and staying consistent. I feel like I’m getting better every day.”

Though they scraped just two goals in two games from their stay in Seattle, high-octane forward Trevor Zegras was just returning from a two-month absence following ankle surgery and rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger dressed in just one of the two games.

In the Ducks’ past two outings, a squeaker they lost in Vancouver followed by a victory in Calgary that was their ninth game with five goals or more this season, “Z” and “Zelly” have illuminated the Ducks’ attack. Zegras has recorded an assist in each appearance while Zellweger followed up his first NHL goal with a three-assist performance.

Zellweger’s ability to squeeze pucks through to the slot and net front factored into the Ducks’ first two goals, creating a deflection tally for Mason McTavish and a carom to Troy Terry for a no-doubt marker. Zellweger’s seeing-eye shots are often created by his ability to utilize his edges, change gears and otherwise employ his many strengths as a skater.

“Olen has dynamic quickness and turning, so he is able to escape forecheckers when breaking out of our zone,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said via text. “That lateral quickness also gives him the ability to move across the offensive blue line and shoot or pass while being a moving shooting threat.”

Zellweger fed Zegras off the rush before Zegras made a brilliant backhand dish through a well-positioned Martin Pospisil to find Cam Fowler for the Ducks’ third goal in what became a 5-3 victory over the Flames after Terry and Alex Killorn connected for a pair of goals late.

“Zegras has elite hockey IQ. He sees plays develop before everyone else on the ice, including his teammates,” Cronin said. “He has the skill to execute the passes through skates and sticks, which was evident on Cam’s goal.”

Terry’s tally was his 20th of the season, earning him his third straight 20-goal campaign, and Killorn now has 17. The season has been anything but linear for either player, with both men surmounting multiple injuries and significant adjustments. Killorn moved from an exemplary culture that won Stanley Cup titles in Tampa Bay to a rebuilding franchise, while Terry was asked to overhaul his offensive approach under Cronin, who took the helm over the summer.

McTavish did not finish the match against the Flames, which the Ducks also played without defensemen Radko Gudas and Pavel Mintyukov. Thursday was a team day off so no definitive medical updates were provided.

Next up, they’ll try to improve their results in the final meeting of the season against a Kraken squad that beat the Ducks twice in Seattle recently and at Honda Center on Dec. 23. The Ducks are the only team that the Kraken, who had lost eight straight before shutting out the Ducks, 4-0, on March 26, has defeated three times this season. Seattle’s most recent game saw the team eliminated mathematically from the postseason after a 5-2 loss to the Kings behind a hat trick by Trevor Moore.

After not only making the playoffs but knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champion, the Colorado Avalanche, the Kraken have fallen to earth.

Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers is on pace to plummet from 57 points in 2022-23 to just 36 in 2023-24, with veterans Vince Dunn and Jordan Eberle also among those whose production tailed off this season.  Dave Hakstol’s club has remained stout defensively, however, allowing the seventh-fewest goals five-on-five in the NHL and the ninth fewest goals overall.

SEATTLE AT DUCKS

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Where: Honda Center

TV: KCOP (Ch. 13)

Wingers Yegor Sidorov and Coulson Pitre signed three-year pacts set to kick in next season, right after forward Sam Colangelo (Monday) and defenseman Andrew Lucas (Tuesday) signed professional tryout and amateur tryout contracts, respectively, with the San Diego Gulls.

Sidorov was drafted No. 85 overall in this past entry draft, responding with the first 50-goal season for his junior club, the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades, since the mid-1990s. Sidorov has also displayed a knack for timely scoring, leading the WHL in game-winning goals and finishing tied for third in power-play goals in a league where recent Washington Capitals signing Zac Funk has left little room at the top of its leaderboards.

Sidorov hails from Belarus, about 185 miles from Minsk, where he played at the junior level before arriving in North America in 2021. His game has been built around skill and deception, as he can use his deft stickhandling to beat defenders one-on-one or his savvy away from the puck to free himself for one-timers.

Pitre was also a 2023 third-round pick for the Ducks, 20 slots before Sidorov. While his production essentially remained level from his draft year to this season, Pitre has qualities that will make him a strong bottom-six or middle-six forward once he matures physically. Hockey sense, grit, pound-for-pound strength and a high motor have all factored into Pitre’s success to date.

Colangelo, the Ducks’ second-rounder (36th overall) in 2020, just completed his collegiate career after Western Michigan University’s elimination from the NCAA tournament. He had his strongest campaign as a senior with 43 points in 38 games. He’s a more mature prospect at 22 and already has NHL size (6’2” and 205 pounds) to go with excellent vision as a playmaker.

Lucas played five college seasons between the University of Vermont, where he was a captain for two campaigns, and the University of Connecticut, which lost to top-ranked Ducks prospect Cutter Gauthier’s Boston College squad in the Hockey East tournament. While the undrafted Lucas has a long road ahead of him to the NHL, he provides two things the Ducks were short on this year as a right-handed shooting defenseman who has proven to be extremely durable.

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  Ducks forward Ross Johnston, right, checks Calgary Flames forward Dryden Hunt during the first period on Tuesday night in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal (1) blocks the net on Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary (47) as defenseman Urho Vaakanainen (5) helps defend during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Ben Meyers (39) and Calgary Flames forward Dryden Hunt (15) chase the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks defenseman Olen Zellweger (51) checks Calgary Flames forward Andrei Kuzmenko (96) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks defenseman William Lagesson (37) checks Calgary Flames defenseman Brayden Pachal (94) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Alex Killorn (17) jostles for position with Calgary Flames defenseman Daniil Miromanov (62) as goalie Jacob Markstrom (25) looks for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Frank Vatrano (77) is checked by Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom (25) and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar (52) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal (1) kicks away a shot from Calgary Flames forward Yegor Sharangovich (17) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Calgary Flames forward Yegor Sharangovich (17) celebrates his goal against the Ducks with forward Nazem Kadri (91) and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar (52) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg (33) and defenseman William Lagesson (37) check Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary (47) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Troy Terry (19) has his shot stopped by Calgary Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom (25) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks defenceman Cam Fowler (4) holds on to Calgary Flames forward Yegor Sharangovich (17) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks defenceman Cam Fowler (4) celebrates his goal with teammates as Calgary Flames forward Martin Pospisil (76) skates away during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg (33) steals the puck from Calgary Flames forward Dryden Hunt (15) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Calgary, Alberta. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

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  Ducks forward Alex Killorn is congratulated as he skates past the bench after scoring a goal during the third period of their game against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night in Calgary, Alberta. Killorn scored two goals in the 5-3 win. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

CALGARY, Alberta — The wins have been few and far between for the Ducks lately, so they feel special when they arrive.

Alex Killorn scored twice, Troy Terry had a goal and two assists and the Ducks snapped their five-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

“It feels good to win,” said Killorn, who has 17 goals this season. “We haven’t done that in a long time. It’s been tough. It’s nice, especially at the end of the road trip to go home with a good feeling.”

Mason McTavish and Cam Fowler rounded out the scoring for Anaheim while rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger had three assists for his first career multi-point game.

Lukas Dostal made 21 stops as the Ducks won for just the second time in their last 14 games (2-11-1).

“It’s not fun losing games and especially not consecutive ones,” Zellweger said. “Get the win here and now we’re looking forward to the next one where we can keep that going.”

Andrei Kuzmenko had two goals and Yegor Sharangovich also scored for the Flames, who have lost six of their last seven games. Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves.

“We weren’t committed to playing with structure,” Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “A team, like that, that plays loose and are pretty skilled, they can make you pay. I don’t know why we don’t get prepared like it would be against any other top team in the league.”

Tied after 40 minutes, the Ducks took the lead 1:52 into the third when Fowler jumped into the rush, took a pass from Trevor Zegras and wired a shot inside the goalpost for his fifth goal of the season and first in 22 games.

The Ducks doubled their lead at 5:09 when Terry carried the puck down the left wing and found Killorn in the slot, who zipped a shot past Markstrom.

After Kuzmenko’s second of the night at 9:34 cut the lead to one again, Killorn put the game away with his second of the period and 17th of the season at 13:14.

Down 1-0 after the first period, Calgary tied it 2:30 into the second period, needing just five seconds to connect on a power play.

After winning the faceoff, the puck eventually came back to Nazem Kadri and his shot was deflected in front by Sharangovich for his 29th goal.

Calgary took its first lead of the night when Kuzmenko took a pass from Kadri, cut into the slot to avoid Zegras, then pulled the puck around Fowler, before holding onto it patiently to outwait Dostal and fire the puck into the net.

The Ducks tied it three minutes later as Terry made up for failing to score on a breakaway earlier in the period.

Zellweger’s shot hit Leo Carlsson in the leg and caromed right to Terry at the side of the net where he buried his 20th goal and 50th point.

Terry is the eighth player in club history with three consecutive 20-goal seasons and the first since Rickard Rakell did it from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

It took the Ducks more than 11 minutes to record its first shot. But when it came, the ice began to tilt the other direction with the visitors recording 13 of the period’s final 14 shots, one of them being McTavish’s goal at 14:03.

After going 14 games without a goal, the 21-year-old in his sophomore NHL season has goals in consecutive games and is up to 19 on the season.

McTavish later left the game with a lower-body injury after a hit.

“It doesn’t look good. We’ll know more later,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “It was an awkward hit. I didn’t like the way it ended. I thought their guy took advantage.”

After beating the playoff-bound Kings and playing an excellent game, Tuesday was a return to the Flames’ inconsistent ways that have plagued them all season.

“Today wasn’t up to our standards and us leaders gotta show the way for the young guys,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund. “We know we’ve gotta play a lot better. We know we gotta learn from it and at some point, we’ve got to play better against teams that are below us in the standings.”

UP NEXT

The Ducks open a four-game homestand against the Seattle Kraken on Friday at 7 p.m.

Their most competitive game was also their most recent, a 3-2 loss in Vancouver in which they were a couple of minutes before they would have forced the Pacific Division frontrunner to overtime. The Ducks scored twice in 71 seconds and later drew a penalty with 5:51 to play. However, they didn’t record a shot on their power play before giving up a late game-winner to Dakota Joshua on a play when both Ducks defensemen chased the puck below the goal line.

“You don’t leave the front of the net when the puck is behind your net,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said, lamenting Sunday’s result. “They’re not scoring from behind the net, just stay there. We’ve talked about it repeatedly this year. It’s just foolishness.”

The Ducks got a goal apiece from Mason McTavish, who had seen his power-play role and ice time alike slashed during the prior two games, and Olen Zellweger, who was born in Calgary and then moved around northern Alberta, making this trip something of a homecoming for him.

“It’s kind of like a dream for everyone to score their first NHL goal, so I’m pretty happy to be able to do it,” Zellweger said.

With his secondary assist on McTavish’s goal, Trevor Zegras found the scoresheet for the first time since his two-goal showing against Detroit back on Jan. 7. Zegras broke his ankle in the following game in Nashville and returned from the surgery just four games ago. He played nearly 20 minutes on Sunday in Vancouver, his fourth highest time-on-ice total this season after playing a season-low 11:05 two games earlier.

The Ducks also faced a pair of recently departed teammates a game earlier in Edmonton, where they fell, 6-1, while Adam Henrique scored for the second straight contest and Sam Carrick recorded an assist in their first game against their former club.

Since the March 8 NHL trade deadline, the Ducks have lost 12 of 13 games (1-11-1) by a combined count of 55-18. Over that period, they’ve scored the fewest goals in the NHL and allowed the most while owning the league’s worst points percentage, lowest penalty kill rate and the second worst power-play efficiency.

Next up they’ll face the Flames, a club that was just as active as the Ducks in moving out assets this season and that has also struggled on the penalty kill and overall defensively, especially since the deadline. They’ve been off since Saturday when they halted a five-game skid with a 4-2 victory over the Kings.

Center Nazem Kadri has been a point-per-game player in the 2024 calendar year, in which fellow pivot Yegor Sharangovich has picked up 31 of his 53 points this season. The 25-year-old Belarusian was acquired from the New Jersey Devils over the summer in the Tyler Toffoli trade and has set career highs in points, goals, assists and power-play points during his first campaign with Calgary.

On the Ducks’ injury front, defenseman Radko Gudas (upper-body injury) has not joined the group, extending his absence to 10 games. Rookie rearguard Pavel Mintyukov (lower-body) should be considered questionable after missing the Vancouver game.

DUCKS AT FLAMES

When: Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

TV: Bally Sports SoCal