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Ryan Strome #16 of the Ducks controls the puck against Brian Dumoulin #2 of the Kings during the first period of a pre-season NHL hockey game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
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Ryan Strome #16 of the Ducks controls the puck against Brian Dumoulin #2 of the Kings during the first period of a pre-season NHL hockey game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
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LOS ANGELES — The fourth and final Freeway Faceoff of the preseason did not disappoint, as the Kings beat the Ducks in an overtime thriller, 5-4.
What appeared to be a mundane exhibition that was over at the first intermission had a frenetic finish, wherein the Ducks responded to four straight goals by the Kings with four consecutive scores of their own to force the extra session. There, the Kings had mustered just one shot, but one that found the twine.
These were the closest approximations of the opening-night rosters displayed all preseason, with the Kings missing only Alex Laferriere (who is questionable for Tuesday’s season opener) 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 the OT winner for Kevin Fiala, who also chipped in an assist. Brandt Clarke contributed a pair of helpers. Darcy Kuemper made 18 saves.
Leo Carlsson matched Danault’s stat line, 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 26 of 31 shots.
“[We played intensely for] 50 minutes, and then we got tight. You see what happens really quickly. That’s why it’s a great league and a great game,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said.
“There’s two ways to look at it,” he continued. “We could have locked that thing down and felt really good about ourselves, or we can play like we did for a little bit and start panicking, then realize, like, whoa, this isn’t how we’re gonna have to do it here starting Tuesday.”
In overtime, Drew Doughty’s slashing penalty compounded matters for the Kings, who had squandered a 4-0 third-period lead and ceded two goals in the final 76 seconds of regulation.
But they would kill the penalty without allowing a shot, and Doughty would start 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.
“You can see on the ice, you can feel it, that (Fiala) is hungry. He wants the puck, and he put it in,” Danault said.
The hosts had 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.
But then 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 Mason McTavish and LaCombe.
“That first goal is always huge, it doesn’t matter how late it is in the game,” Carlsson said.
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.
“We saw what he’s capable of when he can rip it like that, and that’s another way that his offense can be even higher,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said.
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.
“We could have easily said ‘it’s 4-nothing, we have no chance here,’ and gone away to get ready for the regular season, but I loved the way we came back, battled and made some nice plays,” Quenneville said.
That rally was almost obviated by the Kings, who failed to cash in on unforced errors by the Ducks in the second period.
Those 20 minutes were scoreless despite a blown faceoff coverage and a pair of atrocious clearing attempts (one by Frank Vatrano and another from Pavel Mintyukov) that nearly led to three more Kings goals. The Kings doubled up the Ducks in shots, 12-6, in the period.
Early on, it took fewer than five minutes to open the scoring as a 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 outshot 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 Kings will host the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday, while the Ducks will open the year in Seattle against the Kraken Thursday.
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