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(SportsNetwork.com) - The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings are ready to put all the talk and hype surrounding their meeting at Dodger Stadium behind them. The two Pacific Division rivals kick start the NHLs "Stadium Series" on Saturday night when they complete a home-and-home series outside at Dodger Stadium. The clubs will meet for the second outdoor game of this NHL schedule. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings began the extended slate of games outside on Jan. 1 at Michigan Stadium, with the Leafs notching a 3-2 shootout victory in the Winter Classic. The success of previous versions of that event, as well as the Heritage Classic in Canada, prompted the NHL to expand its schedule of games outside. Saturdays game is the first of four in the "Stadium Series" as the New York Rangers will play the New Jersey Devils on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium before returning to the famous grounds for a game against the New York Islanders on Wednesday. Later in the season, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins will square off at Soldier Field in the Windy City on March 1 before the Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators battle the following day in the Heritage Classic. That game will be played at BC Place, which features a retractable roof. Californias first ever outdoor NHL game is also the first played by the league in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River during the regular season. The Kings, though, have played outdoors before as they faced off against the Rangers in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Sept. 27, 1991 in a preseason game played despite an 85-degree temperature. Wayne Gretzky had a goal in that game for Los Angeles. While this contest will be of larger scale and of more importance, it has also required a ton of attention for both teams. Anaheims Ryan Getzlaf noted after a loss to Winnipeg on Wednesday that the outdoor game has caused a lot of distractions. Getzlafs words came after the Ducks lost their first game at home in regulation this season, but they bounced back on Thursday to beat the Kings 2-1 and improve to 21-1-2 as the hosting team this season. That ties the 2008-09 San Jose Sharks as the second-best home record through 24 games in NHL history, with both teams going 21-1-2 to trail only the Montreal Canadiens 1943-44 home start of 21-0-3. The King struck first on Thursday thanks to a first-period tally by Anze Kopitar, but Dustin Penner tied the contest on the power play with 6:09 to go in the second period before Patrick Maroon notched the winning goal with 2:07 to play in the frame. Frederik Andersen stopped 30 shots for the Ducks, who have won 20 of their last 23 games and lead the NHL with 81 points. That is nine more than the second-place Sharks and 17 up on the Kings, who lead Vancouver by just three points for the third and final automatic playoff bid in the division. "One game in January doesnt mean were a better team than them," said Ducks forward Ben Lovejoy. "They played a great game tonight. We were one goal better than them, barely. Were two very evenly matched teams, and we need to bring it on Saturday in order to be successful." The Ducks will play five in a row at home after this game and have lost their last five games as the visitor in this series. The two clubs have split two meetings this season, with the Kings notching a 3-2 shootout win in Anaheim on Dec. 3, and Los Angeles has won eight of the previous 12 encounters overall. Jonathan Quick made 19 saves for the Kings, who won the opener of a five-game road trip on Jan. 16 in St. Louis before dropping the final four games of the trek. "We came up short," Kopitar said. "Thats something we have to learn from. We cant just give up soft goals and easy goals." Quick is 13-6-2 with a 2.41 goals against average in 23 games during his career versus the Ducks, who are likely to go back to Jonas Hiller in net tonight. Hiller has allowed six goals total in back-to-back losses after winning 14 straight and is 8-8-3 with a 2.43 GAA lifetime versus the Kings. . It took five games, but the Celtics finally helped Stevens earn his first NBA victory. "Im going to celebrate for a whole 12 minutes, and then Im going to start watching Orlando and trying to figure them out," the first-year Celtics coach said after Boston beat the Utah Jazz, one of the leagues other winless teams, 97-87 on Wednesday night. . The 33-year-old Spaniard, who held the lead since the second round, turned in a solid final round that featured six birdies and two bogeys to finish on 22-under 266. The victory is Garcias first this year with his last win coming at the Johor Open, an Asian Tour event in Malaysia last December. http://www.shoptheofficialpatriots.com/ ... ts-Jersey/. -- Jerry Rice Jr. . “Im not sure well get Melky Cabrera at all,” said Gibbons. The 29-year-old left fielder struggled all season with knee and hamstring problems. Cabrera was first on the disabled list from June 27-July 20 with tendinitis in his left knee. . -- Steven Stamkos scored his first goal since returning from a major injury, Ryan Callahan had his first goal with Tampa Bay, and the Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 on Thursday night.OMAHA, Neb. -- Terence "Bud" Crawford stopped Yuriorkis Gamboa in the ninth round Saturday night to successfully defend his WBO lightweight belt in a match of unbeatens. Crawford wobbled Gamboa with a left and knocked him down with another left earlier in the ninth, then connected with a right to the chin at the 2:53 mark, prompting referee Gino Rodriguez to call the fight. As Rodriguez waved his arms, Crawford ran to a neutral corner and jumped on the shoulders of co-manager Brian McIntyre. "I hurt him plenty of times," Crawford said, "so when I hurt him the last time, I was looking to finish." The 26-year-old Crawford (24-0, 17 knockouts) was fighting in his hometown for the first time as a professional, and more than 10,000 showed up at the CenturyLink Center, many of them chanting "Craw-ford! Craw-ford!" throughout. "I imagined everybody screaming, supporting me," Crawford said. "It was everything I thought it was going to be." It was his first title defence since his 12-round unanimous decision over Ricky Burns in Glasgow, Scotland, in March. He said he plans to move up to junior welterweight after this fight. The 32-year-old Cuban-born Gamboa (23-1, 16 knockouts), a 2004 Olympic champion, was fighting for the first time in a year. Crawford took control in the middle rounds. In the fifth, Crawford knocked down Gamboa with a left to the side of his head. Crawford staggered him just before the bell with a flurry of shots, bringging the crowd to its feet.dddddddddddd The 5-foot-5 Gamboa, with a 5-inch reach disadvantage, had trouble working inside against Crawford. When Crawford moved in, Gamboa used his superior speed to duck under him. Crawford landed a right to Gamboas cheek in the second round. As the fighters went into a clinch, Gamboa put a couple quick rights to the back of Crawfords head, drawing a warning from the referee. Gamboa landed a couple stinging shots in the third, but that he never was able to hurt Crawford. "He caught me with a good shot in the ninth, at the beginning," Crawford said. "It got my attention and buzzed me a little." Omaha hadnt been site for a world championship fight since 1972, when Joe Frazier successfully defended his heavyweight title against Ron Stander, who was in the crowd Saturday night. In the co-main event, WBO No. 1-ranked middleweight Matt Korobov remained unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Jose Uzcatequi for that organizations intercontinental title. Korobov (24-0) landed a hard left to the previously unbeaten Uzcatequis nose in the first round, knocked him down twice in the fifth and put him on his knees with a body blow in the ninth. The 23-year-old Uzcatequi (22-1), who had stopped his previous five opponents, was in his first professional fight outside Mexico. In another fight, unbeaten Canadian Mikael Zewski stopped Prince Doku Jr. of Ghana in the third round of a scheduled 10-round bout for the NABF welterweight title. ' ' '