The Los Angeles Kings began the 2024 Rookie Faceoff in defeat, with a 2-0 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday evening at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.
Vegas scored the only goal of the first period, as it capitalized on a 5-on-3 man advantage. With John Parker-Jones and Luke Rowe in the penalty box, Golden Knights forward Mathieu Cataford fed forward Jakub Brabanec through the slot, with the latter finishing at the back post for the power-play goal and a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The second period came and went without a goal. Koehn Ziemmer led the Kings with arguably the two best chances of the middle stanza. First, he collected a wide Vegas shot and led a 2-on-1 rush the other way. Ziemmer kept the puck himself, deked the defenseman who went down and took the shot himself, which was denied short side. Later in the period, Ziemmer led a chance down the left wing, which was deflected out of play.
Goaltender Carter George took the net to begin the third period, in what was an expected split for the Kings. Erik Portillo stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced in a strong opening outing.
The visitors doubled their advantage late in the third period, courtesy of a second power-play goal. Late in the man advantage, forward Braeden Bowman took the puck off the rush and made a nice move to his forehand, slotting home top shelf from in close for his first of the tournament and a 2-0 lead for the Golden Knights.
The Kings had a few looks skating 6-on-5 late, including a great pass from Liam Greentree to Ziemmer for a one-timer, but his shot was denied, bringing us to the final score of 2-0.
Hear from Portillo, forward Francesco Pinelli and Head Coach Marco Sturm following tonight’s game.
Francesco Pinelli
Erik Portillo
On getting a game under his belt early in camp
Absolutely. I mean, all the game time you can get is important and it’s helpful for rookie camp.
On early-season games being difficult for a goalie, without a ton of time together as a group
Yeah, I think so. I mean, as you said, it’s a group that hasn’t played very much together, but I think we did the best we could out of the situation. You’ve just got to trust that the guys here are here for the right reason and you do your jo, and they do theirs. So same approach as a regular game.
On what he saw from the group in the second and third periods
In the first, absolutely, I think it takes some time. It’s the first game and we did a good job to re-group and get out in the second and third and did a really good job and create some chances.
On signing a three-year contract extension with the Kings this summer
It’s awesome. I mean, I love this organization and all the people and the players, coaches, the fans as well. It’s a great place to be. I feel like we had a good year last year and now I’m just excited to keep building on that.
On if his approach changes at all, coming into a second professional season
I mean, I think I’m coming in with a humble mindset and just trying to do my best. This is my second year, so it’s time to level up and keep building on what we did last year.
Marco Sturm
On his overall impressions from the 60 minutes tonight
Yeah, they did okay. I mean, these guys worked, so I give them a lot of credit. They’ve been really good in practice, this morning, even at the game, they tried everything and tried to play the right way. It’s all that I can ask for.
On the team’s improvements from the first period to the final 40 minutes
The first period was just, it’s way too many turnovers. That kind of hurt us a little bit 5-on-5. The 5-on-3 goal against, tough penalty in the o-zone and then the other one was a tough one too. But again, they responded, well, I thought we had a really good second period, probably our best period. In the third it was just an even game and unfortunately they scored and we still had some chances on the end, but their goalie played pretty well.
On Koehn Ziemmer’s game tonight
He’s not a flashy guy, but then he has his moments, right, because he has really good hands and all of a sudden he has a really good opportunity. A lot of his shots get blocked, so he has to find a way, maybe moving his feet a little bit more to get more pucks through the net. He’s a dangerous kid, he has a good weapon and he’s another guy to just have to find a way and he has to find a way to just create an opening and get open.
On Brandt Clarke’s game tonight
He was our best player today and right from the start, he was very engaged. I liked that. He was good in the room, he was good on the bench, he was good on the ice. I can’t say anything negative about his game.
On the strides he’s seen in Clarke’s game
He made some strides and again, he’s a very, very young kid and he needed to learn a lot, more on defensive side than offensive. That’s something he improved, and he still has to improve, but you could tell he had a good summer and he’s grown up. He’s becoming a man and you can tell already the first few days.
On Erik Portillo and the goaltending overall tonight
Both goalies were excellent. Ports was outstanding. Very happy for both of them. [Portillo] had a really good start, good first period., he stopped a 2-on-1, he stopped the breakaway, so I was very, very happy with his performance.
The Kings are back in action tomorrow evening against Utah Hockey Club. The team will hold a morning skate tomorrow at Toyota Sports Performance Center in advance of the game.
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