Backup to the backup leads Kings
Grosenick plays his first game in goal since 2014. Kempe scores two more goals.
Adrian Kempe scored two goals and Troy Grosenick made 33 saves in his first NHL appearance in nearly 61⁄2 years, leading the Kings past the Ducks 5-1 on Wednesday night at Honda Center.
Captain Anze Kopitar, Andreas Anthanasiou and Alex Iafallo also scored for the Kings, who beat the Ducks for the first time in three tries this season and split two Freeway Faceoff meetings over the last three days with their Southern California rivals.
Grosenick’s entire previous NHL experience consisted of two games for the San Jose Sharks in November 2014. When Kings goalie Cal Petersen went into the COVID-19 protocol about three hours before this game, and with Jonathan Quick unavailable because of an upper-body injury, Grosenick came through with a strong performance on short notice.
“It was a fun night,” Grosenick said. “Nothing’s normal this year.”
Sam Steel scored and John Gibson stopped 32 shots for the Ducks, whose 6-5 win over the Kings on Monday was their second straight after a nine-game winless streak. Gibson was visibly upset with his injurydepleted defense at times.
Kempe has six goals in his last three games. The Swedish forward followed his hat trick against the Ducks on Monday with another huge offensive performance for the Kings, which won for just the second time in seven games.
Kempe opened the scoring in the first period with a power-play goal. The Kings scored on the man advantage for the sixth consecutive game.
Steel ended his ninegame goal drought just 19 seconds after Kopitar scored for the Kings.
But Kempe scored again late in the second period, and Athanasiou converted a rebound early in the third for a goal in his second consecutive game.