Vegas’ penalty kill units markedly better

Kept Kings scoreless on five power plays in preseason victory

The Kings spent more than eight minutes on the power play during Friday night’s NHL preseason game against the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.

But Los Angeles mustered just three shots and failed to score on any of its five power-play opportunities in a 2-0 loss.

It was an encouraging sign that the Knights’ penalty kill units might be close to ready for Thursday’s regular-season opener after Sunday’s exhibition finale against San Jose at 5 p.m. Sunday at T-Mobile.

“You put the pairs together as much as you can and get a good idea for it, and they did a good job last night,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “It was OK. Obviously, L.A. didn’t have their top players here last night, so it’s not a real indication, but I like what we’ve done.”

Brayden McNabb, Deryk Engelland, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Tomas Nosek each spent more than four minutes on the ice in short-handed situations.

“I don’t think we played against a team with their full power-play lineup, but two of the four units we had on PK had forwards who actually played together last year, so we know the system and that makes it quite easy,” Bellemare said. “We didn’t let in a goal, and we defended our blue line quite well. So we’re close, yeah.”

The Knights were 10th in the league last season, killing off power plays at an 81.4 percent clip.

Ratcheting it up

Gallant said he plans to approach Sunday’s exhibition finale like a regular-season game.

“We’re going to play it like it’s a real game,” he said. “It’s the last one to get ready. We’re not that far away.”

The coach said there were bright spots in Friday’s win, particularly the play of the fourth line and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, but he wasn’t pleased with the disjointed effort.

Some of that can be pinned on the team’s two-day excursion to the Montana ranch of team owner Bill Foley earlier in the week, but the players know it’s time to get back to work.

“Just playing fast as a group,” defenseman Jon Merrill said of what needs to be improved. “We didn’t really stick to our identity as a group (Friday) night. We’re a fast team, and we move the puck up to our forwards quick.

“I think we’ll look to do a lot of that on Sunday.”

Just a breather

Gallant said Erik Haula’s absence from practice Saturday was a routine day off between games Friday and Sunday.

Haula is expected to be available Sunday, Gallant said.

Cody Eakin missed another practice with a lower-body injury and still is considered day to day.

John Locher The Associated Press Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault closes in on Los Angeles Kings center Michael Amadio, left, in a battle for the puck in the second period of Vegas’ 2-0 preseason victory Friday at T-Mobile Arena.