Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere scored goals early in the third period to help lead the visiting Los Angeles Kings to a 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night in the first game of the season in the Freeway Faceoff Series.
Kevin Fiala and Mikey Anderson added two empty-net goals to cap the four-goal third-period and seal it for Los Angeles, which won its second straight game. David Rittich finished with 14 saves for the Kings, who were playing the sixth game of a season-opening seven-game road trip necessitated by renovations at Crypto.com Arena.
Ryan Strome scored a goal and Lukas Dostal made 33 saves for Anaheim.
The tight-checking contest featured just 28 shots on goal over a scoreless first two periods, including just 10 by the Ducks. The Kings had the two best scoring chances, with both coming in the second period. Defenseman Jordan Spence fired a shot off the post and Fiala lofted a backhand shot from the slot just over the crossbar.
Kempe then made it 1-0 at the 3:06 mark of the third period with his third goal of the season, taking a long bank pass off the boards from Anze Kopitar at the blue line and snapping a wrist shot that beat Dostal.
Laferriere increased the lead to 2-0 midway through the period when he intercepted defenseman Jackson LaCombe’s crossing pass in the high slot and fired a wrist shot into the top left corner of the net for his fourth goal.
Anaheim cut it to 2-1 with 1:44 remaining when Strome one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle through traffic and past Rittich’s glove side for his second goal.
Fiala backhanded in an empty-netter with 1:07 left for his fourth goal, and Anderson capped the scoring with 36 seconds to go with a length-of-ice empty-netter for his second goal.
–Field Level Media
