Home, sweet home Kings fans! It’s already late October, but we’ve finally played our first game on home ice. The Kings hosted the San Jose Sharks on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena kicking off the first of their 41 home games. With crowd energy and excitement looming, the Kings got off to a hot start, something they needed as the game went on.
It was a quick start for the Kings as Jordan Spence needed just 4:31 to open the scoring. Following a clean offensive zone entry, Spence was fed a pass as the late man in the zone and ripped a wrist shot for his first goal of the season. A big period from Warren Foegele followed as the line of Foegele, and the Alex’s (Turcotte and Laferriere) continued to build on their early chemistry since being put together. After netting his first goal of the season on Thursday in Vegas, Foegele laid it on the Sharks in the first period and by burying a pair more. Both coming in front of the blue paint, Foegele picked up a rebound and had a deflection to account for his two goals, helping the Kings out to a 3-0 lead in a period where they outshot the Sharks 17-7.
The remaining 40 minutes were not the Kings best two periods as the team committed five penalties, were outshot 19-13 and surrendered two Mikael Granlund power play goals. Granlund brought the game back to within two goals midway through the game and then gave Kings fans a little scare with his second PPG with exactly one minute left in the game. The Kings would prevail after multiple opportunities in the last seconds by Sharks went unsuccessful and move to 4-2-2 on the year.
David Rittich came up clutch when needed and stopped 24 of 26 shots faced.
