The Los Angeles Kings kicked off the 2024-25 preseason on Monday taking on the Utah Hockey Club for their first game in Utah.
It was an electric atmosphere that got both teams into the game early.
After Jack Studnicka ran over Connor Ingram on a strong drive to the net, a pair of fights broke out between Liam O’Brien and Jeff Malott, and Travis Barron and Studnicka respectively.
It wasn’t all fisticuffs in the first though, with Lawson Crouse and Alex Kerfoot both grabbing power-play goals to give Utah a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
After a slow start the the second period, the Kings then answered through Malott and a power-play goal from Alex Turcotte to tie the game.
The game remained tied through the third period, which saw both teams swap their goalies giving Kings fans a first look at Carter George in NHL action.
This took the game to overtime where Clayton Keller finished things just 19 seconds in after a miscue from George and Brandt Clarke gave him a big opportunity.
After the game the teams had a five-round shootout the Kings also lost, with Taylor Ward scoring the Kings’ lone goal.
George was beaten twice in the shootout.
Overall, this Kings team that was made up of largely Reign players and prospects can hang their heads high after a strong performance in Utah.
Utah rolled out a far more high-powered lineup including some of their best players like Keller, Crouse, Nick Schmaltz and Mikhail Sergachev.
The Kings top players included Alex Turcotte, Akil Thomas, Trevor Lewis and Brandt Clarke.
You can never take too much from a preseason game but the Kings team that showed up pushed an NHL team to overtime and that’s impressive.
It was also a good showing for Erik Portillo who wasn’t at fault for either power-play tally and came up with a few big saves.
His early looks against NHL competition looked promising.
