ANAHEIM, Calif. — In their penultimate preseason game, it was the regulars in the Kings’ lineup that led the way.
Forwards Alex Laferriere and Joel Armia each found the back of the net in their 2026 training camp debuts on Wednesday night in the Kings’ 2-1 win over the Ducks at Honda Center.
“It was much better defensively,” Kings head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought just tighter. It wasn't so wide open. I thought we did a really good job containing the rush, so that was good. Offensively, there were some chances and some looks. I'd still like to see a little bit more.”
All the scoring action happened in the first period.
The Ducks got things started when forward Coulson Pitre received a pass at the blue line from defenseman Jayden Kurtz. Pitre entered the zone and sent a pass cross-ice to a streaking forward Ethan Procyzsyn, who fired a shot that goaltender Anton Forsberg didn’t save cleanly. Procyzsyn followed his shot and cleaned up a loose puck behind Forsberg.
The Kings responded with just over a minute left, when Andre Lee carried the puck into the offensive zone. He tried to make a pass, but it was blocked, so Lee attempted a spin-o-rama from the middle of the slot but missed wide. The puck bounced off the board and straight to Laferriere, who backhanded it past a sprawling Lukáš Dostál.
“I saw (Laferriere) had a lot of speed on the right side there,” Lee said. “I was on the left side there, so I was trying to get him the puck. (The defense) did a good job and knocked down the pass, and I got it in my feet again. I thought I'd take a shot and (Laferriere) followed through on the net and got the rebound.”
With 23 seconds left in the opening frame, newly appointed captain Drew Doughty sent a stretch pass to Armia, who entered the offensive zone and beat Dostál cleanly over the glove with a wrist shot.
“I saw there was a little opening, and it was an elite pass from an elite player,” Armia said.
That was all the Kings needed to take this one, as both teams held each other off the scoresheet the rest of the way.
Part of the reason why the score remained a stalemate was because of stellar penalty kills from both teams.
The Kings went a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill, including back-to-back kills within three minutes of each other in the middle of the first period.
“Discipline still has to be better,” Laviolette said. “Going to the box too many times still.”
On the other side of the coin, though, the power play went 0-for-5, which included 3:35 of a double minor when Ryan Poehling’s stick flung up and hit Doughty’s nose, causing him to bleed pretty good. Laviolette said after the game that Doughty is fine.
“The power play, for me, was just a little bit of execution,” Laviolette said. “Again, it was on the breakout, so the drops weren't clean. In zone, we had opportunities. We're set up, and we just didn't execute that next pass. It's gonna move quicker, better execution. That'll lead to more time in the offensive zone, more chances.”
Forsberg also stood out, as he stopped 24 of 25 shots faced. There wasn’t a constant stream of shots coming his way, but the Ducks attacked in waves throughout the night. Forsberg didn’t make any 10-bell saves, but he stood tall when needed.
“I thought he was really good tonight,” Laviolette said. “There was some pucks that whistled in there, and it almost came in clusters. I think their first seven or eight chances, there was two sets of three. It was like boom, boom, boom. So he had to stay sharp and stay in the battle. I thought he did a good job with that. And then it was quiet for him here and there, and he had to stay focused on that as well. So I thought he did a good job handling the pressure when it was there, because it came in spurts. And then when he had to reengage again, I thought he did that as well.”
The Kings will wrap up their preseason at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena against the Ducks before beginning the 2026-2027 season officially.