PRESEASON FINAL – Kings 4, Ducks 3 – Sturm, Fagemo, Portillo

The Kings enjoyed their trip to America’s Finest City on Friday night, emerging with a 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks in preseason action at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.

Four different forwards found the back of the net for the Kings in the victory, including Alex Laferriere, Martin Chromiak, Samuel Fagemo and Hayden Hodgson, while goaltender Erik Portillo made his first career NHL appearance in exhibition play and stopped 27 shots to earn the win.

The Kings found success off the rush for most of the game, including early on in the first to open up a two-goal lead after 20 minutes with two tallies in the final 1:41.

Laferriere got LA on the board at 6:37 of the first, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play that was started by Fagemo on a rush up the right wing. Fagemo fed Brandt Clarke who was open in the slot, and the defender waited for a moment before sliding the puck to his left where Laferriere slammed a shot by goaltender John Gibson.

Anaheim evened the game on a power play goal by Max Jones at 14:14, converting on a puck that was left loose in the crease after a high sticking penalty was called on Samuel Helenius.

But the Kings went back in front four minutes later at 18:19 on a breakaway goal by Chromiak that made it 2-1. Mikhail Maltsev flung the puck out of his own end and saw it bounce off of TJ Tynan and right on the stick of Chromiak, who was already behind the Ducks’ defense.

A fortuitous bounce benefitted the Kings less than a minute later at 19:11 when Fagemo attempted a cross-ice feed that glanced off the stick of Anaheim’s Tristan Luneau and into the net behind Gibson to extend the lead to 3-1 before the first intermission.

Hayden Hodgson kept the good times going for the Kings just 90 seconds into the second, scoring on a breakaway for his first goal of the preseason to make it 4-1 LA.

Halfway through the middle period, Anaheim was forced to make a change in goal as Gibson left the game with an upper-body injury and was replaced by Calle Clang.

The Ducks got one closer before the end of the second, scoring on a shot by Andrew Agozzino from the low slot to cut the Kings lead to 4-2.

Things got tighter in the third as both teams clamped down defensively. LA allowed just eight shots in the final stanza and did surrender a tally to Nathan Gaucher at 3:27, but Portillo kept everything else in front of the goal line to hold off Anaheim and secure the victory.

Anaheim had a 30-27 edge in shots on goal in the game overall and netted the lone power play strike of the evening.

The Kings will travel to San Jose on Saturday for their next preseason contest against the Sharks at 7 p.m. inside the SAP Center.

Read postgame thoughts below from Marco Sturm, who led the Kings behind the bench for the third time this week, as well as Fagemo and Portillo.

Marco Sturm
On getting the help of four players from the Australia group that joined the lineup
It’s always nice to have those guys back. I got to know them a few years now and I’m always excited when they are with me. And yeah it was not easy for them too. They just got back from Australia. You could tell in the morning they were still a little tired. I could see it in their eyes. But it took them maybe a few minutes to get going but overall I was happy with all of them.

On the performance of Erik Portillo in the game
He was good. He made the saves and the ones we needed. A couple of mistakes we made and we let him hang there for a goal or two so that’s something we have to get better but overall he was solid.

On if the additions to the back end helped move the puck out of their zone
Yeah, we did exactly pretty much what we wanted the first two periods and a little bit the second goal against, that kind of, for some reason that kind of got us on our heels a little bit and then they came out in the third and we made a mistake and it ended up in our net. But yes, you can tell they’re NHL players and when those guys have the puck it’s usually tape to tape so that’s nice.

Samuel Fagemo
On how he felt in the game, his first since the trip to Australia
I think fine. It was a really fun trip. I think it was a good experience to do some Safari, play some golf and watch some football too. So yeah, it was just such a great experience.

On the importance of having a good first game back
Yeah, I think we had a lot of traveling hours back for us. It was nice to get the game going and get my feet going again, it feels good.

On what was working for his line in the game
I think we got up a good chemistry and we talked a lot on the bench and ice and stuff and we have fun out there. So yeah, I think was a good game.

Erik Portillo
On how he felt in the game
Good. I mean, I’ve been working really hard to get to this moment and get this opportunity so I felt great out there and it was good to get this win.

On what the team did right in front of him to allow him to make saves
I think we worked really hard today. We backchecked. We blocked shots in the right moments and we just did it for each other. I think it was awesome to see and I think we have a good future coming here.

On if he likes playing in tight situations near the end of games
Yeah, I want to make it to the next level and it’s going to be tight situations all the time so you’ve just got to learn to love it and I really do. I think that’s when I can step up and be the difference for the team and that’s what I want to do.