LOS ANGELES –– The fourth and final Freeway Faceoff of the preseason did not disappoint, as the Kings beat the Ducks 5-4 in an overtime thriller.
What appeared to be a mundane game that was over at the first intermission had a frenetic finish, as the Ducks responded to four straight goals by the Kings with four consecutive scores of their own to force the extra session, where the Kings had just one shot, but it found the twine.
These were the closest approximations of the opening-night rosters displayed all preseason, with the Kings missing only Alex Laferriere and the Ducks icing a healthy group of regulars plus top prospect Beckett Sennecke.
Phillip Danault spearheaded the Kings’ attack with two goals and an assist. Quinton Byfield and Warren Foegele added a goal apiece, with Foegele setting up Fiala’s OT winner. Brandt Clarke contributed a pair of assists. Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves.
Leo Carlsson matched Danault’s output with two goals and an assist, all in the final eight minutes. New acquisitions Mikael Granlund and Chris Kreider tallied. Jackson LaCombe tacked on three assists and Troy Terry had two. Lukáš Dostál stopped 27 of 31 shots.
It took fewer than five minutes to open the scoring as a Mason McTavish hooking penalty opened the door for the Kings’ power play.
Adrian Kempe’s entry cued a slick sequence that saw Fiala move the puck to Andrei Kuzmenko, whose short pass into the slot set up Byfield’s marker. Byfield departed the game briefly in the second period following a slash from Jacob Trouba, but returned soon after.
The Kings extended their edge with 7:37 showing on the first-period clock. Clarke set up a blast by Joel Edmundson, which created a rebound that Danault first backhanded off Dostál before lifting it off his forehand for a goal.
In all, the Kings out-shot the Ducks 11-3 in the frame and drew both penalties, converting a second time on the power play. Again it was Clarke keying the action, this time flashing to the net front and then popping off to the side to receive Danault’s pass and slide it across the crease for Foegele to tap home.
The second period was scoreless, but not for lack of opportunity as blown faceoff coverage and a pair of atrocious clearing attempts (one by Frank Vatrano and another from Pavel Mintyukov) nearly led to three more Kings goals. The Kings doubled up the Ducks in shots, 12-6.
The hosts slathered on a fourth goal 6:52 into the closing stanza. Defenseman Brian Dumoulin’s keep-in at the blue line allowed him to glide forward, with Danault covering his high position. Soon after, that duo ran a give-and-go play that culminated in Danault’s second tally of the afternoon.
Kuemper’s shutout bid was ended by Granlund, whose wraparound attempt went off Kuemper’s pad, across the goal line and out of the cage before being deemed a goal a moment later. With 9:40 to play, Granlund had scored off assists from the newly extended McTavish and LaCombe.
Less than two minutes later, Carlsson tacked on a tally, squeezing himself through tight defense and then the puck through the short-side post and Kuemper’s pad.
Carlsson added a second goal with the man advantage as 1:16 displayed on the game clock, sniping one to the far side to cut the Ducks’ deficit to one.
He’d earn the primary assist on Kreider’s equalizer with 50 seconds remaining, heaving the puck to the netfront, where Kreider has long earned his living.
In overtime, Drew Doughty’s slashing penalty compounded matters for the Kings.
But the Kings killed the penalty, and Doughty started a three-zone, two-man play between Foegele and Fiala that concluded with Fiala hammering a one-timer past Dostál with 33.9 seconds left in overtime.