ANAHEIM –– While the headline names were missing from the marquee, Sunday’s Freeway Faceoff offered no shortage of intrigue and intensity as the Ducks prevailed over the Kings 3-2 in overtime at Honda Center in a game with lead changes, fisticuffs and the usual markers of the rivalry.
Rookie defenseman Jackson LaCombe delivered the overtime winner and the third-period equalizer after center Sam Carrick opened the scoring. Winger Brock McGinn contributed two assists. Center Francesco Pinelli and winger Alex Laferriere tallied for the Kings. Carrick, 31, was the oldest player to play in Sunday’s affair, which saw both rosters skew younger and lesser-known.
Calle Clang and Tomas Suchanek split goaltending duties for the Ducks, with Suchanek allowing both Kings goals but also earning the victory, while Jacob Ingham played the full 60 minutes for the Kings. The three goalies had a combined zero games of NHL experience, though there wasn’t much micromanaging or babysitting to be done on the bench.
“Everybody in here wants to make the team, right? Everybody wants to showcase themselves, so you don’t have to say much,” said Ducks defenseman Robert Hagg, 28, who was among the most experienced players on the ice Sunday.
The Ducks were without not only most of their veteran players but three of their most prominent young stars. Center Mason MacTavish (muscle spasm) missed the match while forward Trevor Zegras and defenseman Jamie Drysdale remained in protracted contract negotiations. Almost every Kings player of note was on another continent as they just finished splitting a pair of exhibitions against the Arizona Coyotes in Australia.
That didn’t stop one of college hockey’s top defensemen last year from making a splash in the NHL preseason.
Just 37 seconds into overtime, LaCombe, who starred at Minnesota, hit the offensive zone with speed before hesitating and utilizing a bit of deception to deposit the game-winner off his backhand.
“I kind of threw it up there to (Chase) De Leo, he made a great cut move so I just had to come up with speed and he made a great drop pass, so I just kind of went in and shot it,” LaCombe said.
Special-teams play defined Sunday’s third period with five penalties meted out in the final frame. The Kings converted on one of their three opportunities, while the Ducks failed to cash in on theirs, including a late slashing minor drawn by winger Judd Caufield during a partial breakaway.
The Ducks had knotted the score shortly after killing a penalty when defenseman Nick Wolff, who had taken the penalty, found a trailing LaCombe, who flicked home the equalizer.
Each team earned a power-play opportunity in the first third of the final frame and it was Laferriere making good on the Kings’ chance with a goal from the slot to take their first lead of the night with 13:54 to play.
“We expect nothing else right? But there’s also room to grow,” said Kings coach du jour Marco Sturm. “He’s such a good and dominant player, he just has to show it every night.”
Sturm also shared that winger Andre Lee sustained a lower-body injury of as-yet-known severity but that sounded serious enough to threaten his preseason participation at a minimum.
The Kings drew even with 2:35 remaining in the second period off Pinelli’s rising, sharp-angle wrister that he zipped past Suchanek from the right faceoff circle. Pinelli also had a strong shift early in the third period where he created another scoring chance.
“Franky, again, a totally different player than he was a year ago, and he showed it at the rookie tournament,” Sturm said. “Scored a nice goal today, and he’s very calm, looks very comfortable. So we’re very happy about him.”
Carrick would move within an assist of a Gordie Howe hat trick as he fought, and felled, winger Hayden Hodgson with 6:14 to play in the second stanza.
Suchanek entered the game at its midpoint and wasted little time making an impression as he erased a mistake with a superb glove save on Charles Hudon’s backhand bid after he collected a turnover and broke in on goal.
The Ducks’ first goal of 2023-24 came with Carrick finishing a give-and-go play off the rush with a forehand fake and a backhand tuck-in to put the home team up 1-0 with 4:09 to play in the first period.
A pair of power plays also gave the Ducks the opportunity to show off their passing skills, and No. 2 overall pick Leo Carlsson appeared particularly assertive. He also showed tenacity recovering pucks, decisiveness in his passing and the ability to create space in the slot. Carlsson would exit the game late and receive treatment after being hit in the face with a stick in the third period, though Ducks coach Greg Cronin said the aftereffects were little more than a headache.
“I thought he was terrific. He could have had a couple points in the first period,” Cronin said. “When he gets the puck, you see his talent, he’s always thinking a couple plays ahead, he’s very confident with it.”