Day Five of Development Camp Recap; The Scrimmage

The long awaited inter-squad development camp scrimmage has now come and gone, but it sure was exciting. Furthermore, there were a flurry of positives to take for multiple participants of the scrimmage. Unfortunately, two of the Kings previous three first-round picks did not suit up as Quinton Byfield (undisclosed) and Alex Turcotte (acute appendicitis) both missed their fourth straight day of camp.

Today’s scrimmage consisted of two halves (20:00 minutes and 25:00 minutes) with the camp roster split in half. Goalies Jacob Ingham, John Lethemon and Lukas Parik rotated in a cycle in and out every five minutes as the buzzer would go off to reset the scrimmage.

Here’s what went down:

First Half

In the first shift of the scrimmage, Brandt Clarke created a turnover in the defensive zone and proceeded to weave his way around three opponents before being stopped in tight against Jacob Ingham.

Rusmus Kupari and Tyler Madden teamed up to create to numerous scoring chances throughout the day, including an extended shift in the offensive zone that led to a shot by Jordan Spence in the slot. Labeled for the top corner, Lukas Parik robbed the defenseman of the ice-breaking goal with a beautiful glove save.

The first goal of the day came on a quick neutral zone regroup that sprung the 2019 second-round draft pick Samuel Fagemo for an angled breakaway. Fagemo, the sure-handed winger took full advantage of the opportunity and rifled home a slap shot high glove to put Team White on the board.

Team White then doubled their lead when defenseman and 2019 sixth-round selection Braden Doyle set up Martin Chromiak with a spin-o-rama pass in the slot. Chromiak finished off the play by finding the back of the net on a wrist shot that went low glove.

Second Half

Four minutes into the second half, Team Black sustained another extended shift in the offensive zone led by Tyler Madden. Bobbing and weaving in and out of white jerseys, Madden set up an impressive sequence that landed the puck on 2021 second-round pick Francesco Pinelli’s stick. Pinelli looped around the top of the circle on the right wing side of the ice and fired home a short-side, top shelf wrist shot past John Lethemon’s glove.

Just two minutes later, Rasmus Kupari, Francesco Pinelli and Tyler Madden teamed up again for another eye-catching offensive zone passing play for Team Black. On this occasion, the trio went tic-tac-toe, ending in the back of the net via a backdoor pass from Pinelli to Kupari.

In response, Team White retook the lead 3-2 when Fagemo tallied his second goal of the scrimmage off of a nice zone entry and pass from Aidan Dudas. The goal was set up off of the rush and had plenty of traffic in the slot, allowing Fagemo to step into open ice and fire a shot five hole past the goalie.

Johan Sodergran had a chance to tie the scrimmage for Team Black when the 2018 sixth-round pick was given a penalty shot, but the left-handed Swedish forward missed high blocker.

Team Black fought back again to tie the game when Tyler Madden beat the goalie to the post short-side off of a nice pass from behind the net by Andre Lee.

Camp invitee Sahil Panwar responded for Team White to retake the lead as the left-hander beat the goalie unexpectedly off of an offensive zone draw.

Just three minutes later, Panwar then doubled Team White’s lead off of a neutral zone turnover, leading to a 3-on-1. After looking off the defenseman, Panwar went high glove to give his team a 5-3 lead.

With time winding down, Sodergran got his redemption and cut Team White’s lead in half by firing the puck past Jacob Ingham high glove from the face-off dot to the right of the goalie.

To finish off the scrimmage, Chromiak sealed the Team White win with an empty-net goal with just 40 seconds remaining.

Team White wins 6-4.

***

Standouts for Team Black included: Rasmus Kupari, Tyler Madden, Francesco Pinelli and Jordan Spence

Standouts for Team White included: Martin Chromiak, Brandt Clarke, Aidan Dudas and Samuel Fagemo