ANAHEIM — The Kings outlasted the Ducks to earn their first victory of the preseason, 2-1, on Wednesday night at Honda Center.
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Ethan Procyszyn scored the lone goal for the Ducks, who have split their exhibition slate to date. Lukáš Dostál repelled 17 shots. Second-round pick Jayden Kurtz, who was a senior at Rogers High in Minnesota this time last year, skated on the top defensive pairing for the Ducks, blocking three shots and putting another one on goal.
Alex Laferriere and Joel Armia scored less than a minute apart as the first period dwindled down. That was all the Kings needed apart from 24 saves by Anton Forsberg.
“Much better defensively, it was tighter and it wasn’t so wide open. We did a really good job containing the rush,” Kings coach Peter Laviolette said. “Offensively, there were some chances and some looks, I’d still like to see a little bit more.”
Less than 30 seconds into the third period, Ryan Poehling high-sticked newly named Kings captain Drew Doughty, drawing blood from Doughty’s nose. Doughty, who drew plaudits from Laviolette after the game, quickly returned to the ice, and the Ducks killed off the resulting double-minor penalty. But the hosts could not level the count, facing an identical deficit for more than 40 minutes on Wednesday.
“It was special teams, faceoffs and battles. There weren’t a lot of high-quality scoring chances,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “But we had some good looks, on the power play, a couple times we hit the bar and had some good opportunities where we should have been a little bit more productive.”
A scoreless second period saw the Ducks carry play territorially and in terms of shots on goal (12-6 after a 6-9 first period) but draw no nearer. They headed into the second intermission trailing by the same 2-1 score as they did at the first.
In those opening 20 minutes, the Ducks struck first but the Kings laughed last, taking the lead with two goals in the span of 41 seconds between 18:56 and 19:37.
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Armia made it 2-1 in their favor after a won defensive-zone faceoff, an ill-advised pinch by Pavel Mintyukov and a heady Doughty stretch pass that sent Armia into the right circle for a snap shot.
“I saw there was a little opening, and then it was an elite pass from an elite player,” said Armia, who added that he was “really happy how we grinded it out.”
That came on the heels of Laferriere’s equalizer. Andre Lee engulfed Noah Warren’s shot attempt and rambled the other way for his own try. It clanked off the end boards but banked to Laferriere for a backhand tally.
“I saw (Laferriere) had a lot of speed on the right side when I was on the left side. I was trying to get him the puck,” Lee said. “The (defenseman) did a good job and knocked down the pass, when I got (the puck) in my feet again, I thought I’d take a shot, and (Laferriere) followed through to the net and got the rebound.”
The Ducks opened the scoring 8:41 into the contest. Following a neutral-zone turnover by the Kings, the Ducks’ tempered counterattack resulted in Procyszyn flinging a wrist shot on net and then darting toward the crease to push in his own rebound. They later had a second goal wiped away because Tim Washe interfered with Armia during the scoring play.
On Thursday, the Ducks will compete against the Sharks in San Jose. Then both Southern California teams will wrap their preseason dockets on Saturday when the Kings will reciprocate by hosting the Ducks.
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