Darcy Kuemper, Kings shut out Ducks in preseason tussle

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Kings captain Anze Kopitar, left, waits for a pass in front of Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal during the first period of their preseason game on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, at the Honda Center. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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ANAHEIM — A new season has brought the same old hierarchy to the Freeway Faceoff, which the Kings took comfortably from the Ducks for the second time in four days, 3-0, on Wednesday night at Honda Center.

The Kings also defeated the Ducks, 3-1, on Sunday in Ontario in the first of four preseason meetings. Both clubs have played three exhibition games, with the Kings remaining undefeated and the Ducks having won just once.

Kings captain Anže Kopitar was playing in his first game for the last time, making his preseason debut in his 20th and final campaign as a King.

“We’re gonna have a lot of last firsts this year, this is going to be a topic,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “We have so much in front of us, it’s hard to think about it in those terms.”

Primarily, however, it was the fourth line coming through for the visitors.

Jeff Malott might have put a down payment on a roster spot by scoring a goal and setting up another by Martin Chromiak after Mallot also scored in a 3-1 victory over Vegas on Tuesday. Kevin Fiala added a late goal. Darcy Kuemper, who was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy last season, stopped all 14 pucks fired at him.

The Ducks’ Lukáš Dostál allowed one goal on 18 shots before being replaced mid-game by Calle Clang after Dostál’s goal crease collision with Kopitar. Dostál said the switch was planned and its concurrence with the minor shakeup was coincidental.

The Kings out-shot the Ducks 12-4, drew the game’s first penalty and later scored the only goal of the first period.

Malott gained the zone, glided forward and found Chromiak in the inner part of the right circle for a wrist-shot goal in transition with 1:34 displayed on the clock. Mallot, 29, had just one game of NHL experience going into 2024-25, but played a dozen regular-season games and dressed for all six playoff contests.

“(Mallot) put on about seven or eight pounds of muscle,” Hiller said. “He’s a strong guy to begin with, but he’s a little stronger, he’s got a lot of confidence and he’s playing really well. He looks like an NHL player.”

In the second period, the Ducks needed more solid goaltending and last-ditch defending just to tread water. That was despite a pair of power plays and two minutes of four-on-four action. They still trailed 1-0 but were being out-shot 19-7 through 40 minutes.

“Whether it was the power play or it was five-on-five, the puck wasn’t our friend tonight, and that’s got to be a strength going forward,” said Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, who iced a lineup laden with NHL’ers.

Quenneville praised his goaltenders, which aided another solid effort from the penalty kill, but little else from Wednesday’s lackluster display on the heels of Monday’s 6-1 trampling of the Utah Mammoth.

“It was definitely not a good showing. We got outplayed off every faceoff and we didn’t come up with any 50-50 battles all night,” Quenneville said.

With 12:18 left in the game, the Kings added an insurance goal when Mallot tipped Kyle Burroughs’ shot past Clang to make it 2-0.

The Kings cushioned that lead to 3-0 with 7:37 to play, when Alex Laferriere drove the net and then abruptly reversed the puck for a Fiala tuck-in tally.

Darcy Kuemper, Kings shut out Ducks in preseason tussle – Orange County Register

BySoCal Chronicle

By SoCal Chronicle

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