In their penultimate preseason game, the Kings faced off against the San Jose Sharks in Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday night. The black, silver and white rolled out a roster that will very much look like their opening night roster and looked good early.
Recording seven of the first nine shots, the Kings netted the game’s first goal when Kevin Fiala set up Pierre-Luc Dubois for a beautiful one-timer 8:27 into the game. Creating the passing lane for Fiala was Alex Laferriere, who drew the Sharks defensive pair down low with the aggressive center-lane drive. The connection between Fiala and Dubois is a great sight to see as the Kings’ two prized offseason acquisitions over the last two years are expected play together come the regular season.
Leading 1-0 late in the first period, the Sharks evened the score with a high-slot tip-in on the man advantage.
Into the second period, the teams again traded a goal apiece. After an errant Sharks pass in their own end, the men in black capitalized as Anze Kopitar took a pass from Drew Doughty and gave the Kings their second one-goal lead of the game 8:16 into the middle stanza. The Sharks responded six minutes later when Mike Hoffman buried a rebound goal off of a Pheonix Copley pad.
Tied 2-2 after two, it was deja vu all over again. Just like the previous pair of periods, the Kings took a one-goal lead and the Sharks responded with a goal of their own. Trevor Moore scored the period’s first goal as the trio of Moore, Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault teamed up to all get in on the stat sheet for the 3-2 lead. The Sharks’ Thomas Bordeleau knotted the game at 3-3 with 5:45 remaining in regulation and eventually sent the game into overtime.
Overtime didn’t last long as the Kings’ top goalscorer from last season Adrian Kempe sent both teams home just 17 seconds into the 3-on-3 session. Kempe received a pass from Doughty and Kopitar before twisting a beautiful shot from the top of the circles past the Sharks’ Mackenzie Blackwood.
At the other end of the ice, Copley stood tall, stopping 24 of 27 shots and looked sharp doing so.
