The pre-season is now officially over for the Los Angeles Kings after they defeated the Hamburg Freezers 5-4 earlier today in Germany.
POST-GAME NOTES:
– The Kings were allowed to play the game under German Elite League rules, thus they had 20 skaters, plus two goalies. The line combinations and D-pairings were:
Scott Parse – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Simon Gagne – Mike Richards – Dustin Brown
Brad Richardson – Jarret Stoll – Trent Hunter
Kyle Clifford – Trevor Lewis – Ethan Moreau
Willie Mitchell – Drew Doughty
Jack Johnson – Rob Scuderi
Alec Martinez – Matt Greene
Davis Drewiske – Slava Voynov
– The Kings goaltending duties were split between Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier.
– Kopitar led the offense, as he has all pre-season. He finished the game with three points (one goal, two assists). Williams (one goal, one assist) and Scuderi (two assists) each had two points in the game.
– Serge Aubin (who played with former Kings defenseman Rob Blake in Colorado during the 2002-03 NHL season) had two goals for the Freezers, while Brandon Brooks had one goal and added an assist.
– The three stars of the game were: 1) Cristoph Schubert 2) Aubin 3) Kopitar [no explanation for how/why Schubert received the first star]
– Total shots on goal were: Hamburg 42 (17 – 11 – 14) and Los Angeles 37 (16 – 17 – 4)
– Brief goal deceptions: Williams wrist shot (36 seconds, first period)… Aubin power play goal (12:51, first)… Alec Martinez slap shot (13:25, first period)… Schmidt scored from in front of the net (17:32, first)… Aubin top shelf off a rebound (31:42, second period), Hamburg leads 3-2 and Quick leaves the game (as planned)… Williams and Parse set up Kopitar, game tied (13:32, second period)… Richardson converts a Stoll rebound, LA up 4-3 (19:46, second)… Ethan Moreau converts a rebound, putting Kings up 5-3 (3:50, third period)… Brooks brings Freezers within one goal (19:31) – but, that’s how the game ended, 5-4 LA won
– Dustin Penner did not play due to what coach Terry Murray described as a ‘lower body’ injury
– After the game, Doughty – who was playing his first game of the new NHL season – had this to say: “I’m ready to go. I can’t wait for the start of the season. That is the game we all look forward to since the start of the summer. It wasn’t too difficult for me to get in the flow. I worked hard in practice and during the summer to be ready for this.”
– An awesome video highlights package can be seen here – it features all the goals and some nice slow motion replays
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the Kings overall performance in their eight pre-season games.
The Mayor
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above photo courtesy of Hamburg Freezers
