ONTARIO, Calif. – Icing a veteran-laden team in their AHL barn, the Los Angeles Kings reigned over a tightly contested game against a youthful Anaheim Ducks roster, 3-1, in the preseason-opening Empire Classic, 3-1, on Sunday at Toyota Arena

Nikita Nesterenko scored 85 seconds into the game with a seeing eye shot from the edge of the right circle to put the Ducks ahead. The Kings would tie in the period, as Brandt Clarked walked around a lunging Beckett Sennecke and a flatfooted Pavel Mintyukov to storm the crease. Alex Turcotte tapped in the rebound to an empty net to tie, 1-1.

Veteran Ville Husso and Team Canada World Junior goalie Carter George had strong nights between the pipes, particularly in a lively second period.

The Kings broke the tie with a shorthanded goal, as Turcotte and Alex Laferriere pushed up ice against Sennecke. Laferriere’s first shot off Turcotte’s feed was stopped by Husso, but Laferriere easily slid the rebound past the prone Husso for the lead, 2-1, with 13 minutes remaining.

The Kings sent in an empty-net goal from distance to seal the game, 3-1, in the final minute.

Anaheim went 0-for-3 on the power play in the third period, and the Kings outshot the Ducks, 33-27.

Quenneville and the Ducks will be back at it with a new preseason group against Utah on Monday at Honda Center.

 

Coach Q Returns to the Bench

There will certainly be more fanfare to it when the Ducks open the regular season in Seattle on Oct. 9, but Sunday’s preseason opener was still Quenneville’s first time behind the bench in an NHL game since Oct. 27, 2021.

“It was fun being a part of it,” Quenneville said. “It’s great to be back in the game. I love how we competed tonight. The pace of the game was great. Everybody looked like they’re competing for a job.”

It had been a breakneck three days of training camp that left Quenneville without a voice by the end of Saturday’s practices and nursing a lozenge during Sunday’s game. In his first exhibition game at the helm in nearly four years, Quenneville encouraged his team, which featured just a handful of NHL regulars, to take a free and open approach.

“His message is kind of just, you know, it’s early in the preseason. Just don’t be afraid to make mistakes,” Nesterenko said. “Just kind of go out there 100%, work your ass off, and he’ll correct us as we go. Everything else will fall into play.”

Ultimately, it was a competitive preseason opener that came down to the finer details of the third period. In the end, aside from a desire to be more comfortable with the puck offensively, Quenneville appreciated the effort from his club, which he vowed to make the “hardest-working team in the league.”

“I think across the board, I can’t complain about anybody in the game,” Quenneville said. “I just think everybody showed that they’re competitive as heck, that we’re gonna try to play faster, but we want the puck. We want to be friendlier with it.”

Defensive Zone Growing Pains

Joel Quenneville has instituted a zone defensive scheme for the Ducks this season, a change from the man-to-man days under Greg Cronin. That has been the big focus at the start of camp, and the learning period reared its head in the first period.

“It’s definitely a change for man on man,” Nesterenko said, “but Q was kind of saying, if you’re lost and don’t know where to go, just kind of find the puck, be aggressive, chase after your guy and everyone else will follow after you. So, yeah, just being aggressive. He wants two guys on the puck at all times. Trying to cut out the D zone time, obviously, and then get back from the offense.”

On the Kings opening goal Beckett Sennecke was caught lunging at the top of the zone, and as Brandt Clarke walked around him, Pavel Mintyukov stepped up from the crease and Ryan Poehling came across the slot. This left two Ducks defenders in the same area, with Mintyukov particularly in a no-man’s land. Clarke caught the young Russian flatfooted and took the puck to the crease, where Alex Turcotte tapped in a rebound.

In this system, Quenneville also preaches defensemen to stay on their respective sides of the ice to not rush over and leave holes on the backside. On a few early Kings rushes, defensemen started to cross over, and after a couple steps over too far, they would snap back to their position, remembering the coach’s mantra.

“It’s more kind of a based off reads system,” Tristan Luneau said, “so it gets us to be more aggressive and kind of trusts our instincts a bit more. We got some things to clean up and kind of clarify, but for the first game, I thought it was going good.”

All part of the learning curve, which is certainly expected and allowed when icing a young roster in the first period of the first preseason game under a new head coach.

Midway through the first period, Jansen Harkins took an innocuous hit along the side boards and came out of the collision holding his right arm. Harkins went directly to the locker room and did not return.

“We’ll know more tomorrow, but I’m not optimistic,” Quenneville said.

Harkins centered the second line between Nikita Nesterenko and Sam Colangelo and was one of the three alternate captains for the game.

The 28-year-old Cleveland native is one of several Ducks fighting for limited slots on the fourth line, including Nesterenko, Colangelo and Ryan Poehling, who centered the top line between Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke.

With Harkins out, the Ducks rotated the three other centers through the spot–Poehling, Tim Washe, Nathan Gaucher–and occasionally slid Gauthier into the spot, which he played regularly at Boston College.

Anaheim Ducks Line Combinations:

Cutter Gauthier (A)-Ryan Poehling-Beckett Sennecke

Nikita Nesterenko-Jansen Harkins (A)-Sam Colangelo

Yegor Sidorov-Tim Washe-Justin Bailey

Nico Myatovic-Nathan Gaucher-Sasha Pastujov

Pavel Mintyukov (A)-Tristan Luneau

Stian Solberg-Noah Warren

Los Angeles Kings Line Combinations:

Joel Armia-Quinton Byfield-Alex Laferriere

Liam Greentree-Alex Turcotte-Jeff Malott

Andre Lee-Samuel Helenius-Akil Thomas

Logan Brown-Glenn Gawdin-Martin Chromiak

Jacob Moverare-Brandt Clarke

Jakub Dvorak-Kyle Burroughs

Jared Woolley-Henry Brzustewicz

Carter George-Phoenix Copley