Sat Apr 5 19:14:03 2008

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Selanne's pair send Ducks past Kings

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Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Teemu Selanne scored two goals, including the game-winner early in the third period as the Anaheim Ducks edged the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, at Staples Center.

Joe DiPenta and Ryan Getzlaf also tallied for Anaheim, which has won four of its last five games and reached the 100-point plateau for the second straight season.

The Ducks are locked into the fourth seed in the Western Conference standings, and will have home-ice advantage in their opening-round series against division-rival Dallas.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 28 saves in the victory.

Dustin Brown, Brian Willsie and Patrick O'Sullivan accounted for the Kings offense. Los Angeles finished its regular-season slate losing four of their final six, and ended the year with the worst record in the conference.

Dan Cloutier stopped 22-of-26 shots in defeat.

"When you look at this team and see the youth, you can see there are stars in the making and the future is very bright," Kings captain Rob Blake said.

With the game tied 3-3 after two periods, Selanne's second goal of the contest 6:28 into the third put the Ducks ahead. After some good puck control along the left wing boards in the LA defensive zone, the veteran winger moved to the middle of the circle and ripped a wrister over the right shoulder of Cloutier to give Anaheim the one-goal edge.

The Kings maintained good puck possession in the Anaheim zone in the closing minutes of the contest and pulled Cloutier for an extra attacker, but were unable to get the equalizer despite some quality chances.

"They wanted to win the last game of the season if front of there fans," Giguere said. "But for us these are hard games to play because they have no meaning. The key is to not get into any bad habits."

Brown lit the lamp on a wrist shot from the left circle with 7:36 left in the first, giving the Kings the early lead.

DiPenta's soft wrister from the right point got through a maze of players and beat a screened Cloutier with 50 seconds left in the period to tie the game. It was the steady backliner's first goal of the year.

Anaheim then tallied only eight ticks later. Following the faceoff, defenseman Jon Klemm controlled the puck in the Los Angeles end. He was stripped by Selanne inside the blue line, and the flashy Finn made Rob Blake look foolish on a poke check before slipping a backhander through Cloutier to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead heading into the intermission.

Willsie's rebound tally 2:21 of the second evened the contest temporarily, but Getzlaf's breakaway marker a little over a minute later put the Ducks back in front by a 3-2 margin.

In a back-and-forth affair, O'Sullivan tied the game again at 4:26 on a great individual play. The centerman controlled the puck in the right wing corner of the Anaheim defensive zone, skated out to the right circle and fired a wrist shot past the Giguere.

Game Notes

The Ducks improved to 19-18-4 on the road this year, while LA fell to 17-21-3 at home...Anaheim finished 6-2 against the Kings this season...Anaheim has also won seven of the last nine in Los Angeles...The Ducks' two goals eight seconds apart in the first were the fastest two goals in Anaheim's franchise history...Anaheim improved to 19-5-1 with Selanne in the lineup.