Kings spoil Vegas’ opening night
Laich’s overtime goal gives L.A. a preseason win in the expansion team’s home debut.
LAS VEGAS — Brooks Laich scored 12 seconds into overtime Tuesday night to give the Kings a 3-2 exhibition victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL expansion team’s first-ever home game.
The Golden Knights’ home debut attracted a crowd of 17,101 to T-Mobile Arena. The year-old arena seats a maximum of 17,500 for hockey.
Vegas has two home exhibition games remaining before its regular-season opener Oct. 6 in Dallas. The Golden Knights’ first regular-season home game is scheduled for Oct. 10 against Arizona.
Nic Down and Kurtis MacDermid scored for the Kings, who are 3-1-1 in the preseason, and Jack Campbell made 27 saves.
Cody Eakin gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at 3:44 of the first period, and William Carrier tied it at 2 when he scored 3:50 into the third. Calvin Pickard made 24 stops for the Golden Knights. Nolan, Zatkoff placed on waivers
The Kings put Jordan Nolan and Jeff Zatkoff on waivers earlier Tuesday.
Nolan, a fourth-line energy player and a member of both their Stanley Cup-winning teams, was limited to 46 games last season because of injuries and was criticized by then-coach Darryl Sutter for lack of availability due to injury, and for missing a morning skate in April.
Zatkoff struggled in his first season with the Kings when he initially replaced injured goaltender Jonathan Quick. He had an .879 save percentage and won twice in 13 appearances last season.
The Kings can assign Nolan and Zatkoff to the minor leagues if they are not claimed by another team.