Ducks, Kings Talk a Good Game : Hockey: Insults and backhanded compliments are as much a part of the rivalry as cross checks and stray elbows.

INGLEWOOD — The Mighty Ducks and the Kings keep trading shot for shot, blow for blow, attack for counterattack.

And that’s just the war of words.

They interrupted their sniping Sunday afternoon to play a hockey game--a game too important for unchecked tempers to rule. There were a mere five penalties during the first three periods of Sunday’s 2-2 tie before emotion spilled over in overtime between King defenseman Rob Blake and--who else--the Duck who would be King, Dave Karpa.

Blake went unpenalized for hitting Karpa from behind about midway through the five-minute overtime, and Karpa decided to administer the penalty himself, shooting the puck directly at Blake.

“It hit me in the knee, but I don’t think he was shooting at me,” Blake said.

Karpa begged to differ. “I snapped,” he said.

“Did he?” Blake said. “If that’s the way he wants to play, whatever. It was the heat of the moment, maybe.”

Karpa and Blake had to be separated again and again, all this with the game and two crucial points on the line. They came out even on the penalties--a 10-minute misconduct each at 2:35 of overtime--and on points, each team picking up one for the tie.

“If (Blake) gets the original penalty, all the baloney doesn’t start,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “In my mind that’s a five-minute major for charging and hitting from behind.” Karpa is the player the Kings rejected as unfit to play because of a wrist injury. He became a Duck less than a week later and has thrived at making a nuisance of himself. He drove Marty McSorley to distraction in the Ducks’ 5-1 victory in Anaheim earlier this month, and McSorley finally took out his frustration by elbowing Bobby Dollas in the head in the final minute, causing a concussion.

Dollas labeled it a “cheap shot.” Wilson called it “ridiculous” and lobbied the NHL to suspend McSorley. McSorley more or less sniffed and said the Ducks were only trying to get him suspended because they “think” they’re in a playoff race.

In addition, then-King Coach Barry Melrose was saying he liked his team’s view better than the view of teams below them. His view of his team now is presumably from in front of his television set.

All of which seemed to set the stage for the rematch Sunday.

But McSorley played with unusual restraint. He didn’t beat up the Ducks. He didn’t beat them, either, but he did tie them, scoring the goal that salvaged a point for the Kings with 41 seconds left in regulation.

As for Karpa, McSorley said, “If we’re worried about Dave Karpa--we’re a long way from where we should be if we’re worried about Dave Karpa.”

Blake paid for his altercation with Karpa, sitting out the final 2:25 of overtime.