FINAL – Kings 2, Ducks 1 – Portillo, Turcotte, Hiller

The Los Angeles Kings made it two consecutive victories, skating to a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday afternoon at Honda Center.

Neither team got on the board during a first period which saw goaltender Erik Portillo make his NHL debut between the pipes for the Kings. Portillo stopped all nine shots he faced during the opening period, taking the game into the first intermission at 0-0.

Early in the second period, Anaheim opened the scoring through forward Ryan Strome. Defenseman Drew Helleson got a shot through from the point, deflected by Strome with Portillo denying the original attempt, but the veteran forward stuck with the play and slotted home the rebound from close range for his fifth goal of the season and a 1-0 advantage.

The Kings equalized just past the halfway point of the game, as the Alexes – Turcotte and Laferriere – connected on a 2-on-1 rush to tie the game. Laferriere played the role of facilitator, as he led the rush down the right wing, before feeding Turcotte across the slot. Turcotte collected and fired home, past Anaheim netminder John Gibson, for his second goal of the season, sending the game into the second intermission tied at one.

Inside the first two minutes of the third period, the visitors took their first lead of the afternoon, with Laferriere impacting the game once again. Trailing the play as the third attacker, Laferriere drove the slot and pounced on a Phillip Danault rebound, placing his shot past Gibson and in for his tenth goal of the season and a 2-1 Kings advantage.

Hear from Portillo, Turcotte and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s win over Anaheim.

Erik Portillo

Alex Turcotte
On Erik Portillo and his NHL debut
It’s pretty cool when guys play their first game and he kept us in it and made a lot of huge saves for us. I’d say he’s the main reason we won this game. Happy to have him and we’re really happy for him.

On seeing a player navigate his first NHL game
All the guys have been through it, I didn’t think he had any [nerves] to be honest, he was making huge saves for us from the start. They had a lot of Grade A’s in the first period and it seemed normal to me, how he played in Ontario, he played like that today. He was massive for us.

On his goal tonight and having a shooting mentality on the 2-on-1
I hadn’t had a shot on goal in two games, so there was no question that I was shooting that. Laf made a great play, I think the goalie maybe thought I was going to give it back to him. I saw the top left corner and I put it there.

On if he’s getting more instruction to get shots on goal
They tell me, but I think it’s more myself. I’m trying to do all the little things out there and make plays, but I’ve still got to get the puck on net sometime and be a little bit selfish. I’m happy I got the opportunity today.

Jim Hiller
On Erik Portillo’s performance today in his NHL debut
I thought maybe he looked a little nervous early, but boy did he get himself together in a hurry. There’s not much to say, he was fantastic. He was big, that’s the one thing I noticed, he was big, his legs are long and quick and he couldn’t have had a better debut.

On seeing Portillo make big saves early, to get into the game
Confidence, right away, you want the goalie to get some saves and feel good, every goalie who goes in any night, you want him to get a few under his belt, get feeling good. He did get those. They missed a couple early, they missed the net on a couple early, but then he got pads on them, and you just felt like, you know what, this kid’s ready to play. He’s going to have a good night, and we needed him.

On the play of his fourth line of Lee – Helenius – Lewis
If you just think about how much time they spent in the o-zone versus how much time they spent in the d-zone, how physical they were, that was our best line. You could feel it. They put a lot of pressure and I think we’re seeing that Andre and Sammy are better together there and Lewie compliments them really well as a veteran guy, but they had an impact on the game, no question.

On the typically tightly-contested games between the Kings and Ducks
These teams have fought hard over the years and I think they’re always close games. I think they’re emotional games, they’re tight. I thought – we’ve played them this year, I’ve scouted them this year – I thought that’s the best game they’ve played this year. I thought they played very well, they were clearly ready for us. So, it probably brings out the best in both teams.

On Alex Turcotte’s goal and the shooting mentality he showed
It was a great shot. Turcs had missed a few and he gets frustrated, but that one, he made no mistake. We had a pretty good sight line from the bench, and he got him. Quick hands, good release, and the goalie didn’t have a chance. Nice to see for him.

On stringing back-to-back victories together
It’s really important. Yeah, we’ve kind of been treading water a little bit a good game, not so good, good and so we really want to start stretching some wins together. Wish we would have played better, again, I thought they played better than us, that was a really good game by them. But in the end, we had to just fight for our points in the third period and I thought we did that. I thought at least we were competitive, even though we spent time in our zone, our bench was alive, we wanted to win the game. So those are good games. Tthe easy ones, when you got a 3-1 lead or you’re up four, you just kind of cruise through it and manage it. This one was a street fight right to the end, and I’m glad that we had to go through that.

Notes –
• Forward Alex Turcotte (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season, and has now picked up three points (1-2=3) over his last four games. Turcotte now has points in back-to-back games against the Ducks (1A; Oct. 20, 2024).
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-1=2) notched his 10th goal and ninth assist of the season for his second-straight multi-point effort (0-2=2 on Nov. 27), establishing the first such streak of his career. Laferriere now has three points (2-1=3) in his last two games against the Ducks (1G; Oct. 20, 2024).
• Laferriere’s goal stood as the game-winner, his second straight deciding tally against the Ducks (Oct. 20, 2024), becoming the third skater in franchise history to score the game-winning goal in back-to-back games against Anaheim, joining Joe Corvo (Jan. 24, 2004 & Jan. 28, 2024) and Anze Kopitar (March 10, 2021 & April 20, 2021).
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) tallied his 10th assist of the season, his 100th as a member of the Kings. Danault becomes the eighth Quebec-born skater to tally 100 assists as an LA King, and is the second skater to record his 100th helper in a Kings sweater so far this season, joining Trevor Moore (Nov. 13, 2024 at COL).
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) picked up his 13th assist of the season to push his point streak to a third game (1-2=3), dating back to Nov. 25. Clarke’s 16 points (3-13=16) this season are the most by a blueliner selected in the 2021 NHL Draft.
• Captain Anze Kopitar skated in his 700th career road game today, the fourth most among all active skaters behind Ryan Suter (728), Alex Ovechkin (725), and Brent Burns (714).
• Goaltender Erik Portillo made his NHL regular season debut, stopping 30 of 31 shots faced to secure his first career victory. Portillo is the third Swedish-born goaltender to play for the Kings. He is also the first University of Michigan Wolverines goaltender alumnus––and ninth player overall––to appear in a game for the franchise.

The Kings are not scheduled to have a morning skate tomorrow in advance of tomorrow afternoon’s game against the Ottawa Senators at 4 PM.