The Kings earned their first win of the preseason on Wednesday night, but it came at a steep price. Despite a 3-2 victory, the biggest story from tonight’s game is the status and severity of Drew Doughty’s injury. Doughty left Wednesday’s game midway through the first period after colliding with the boards and his former teammate Tanner Pearson. Both of Doughty’s legs were caught in the boards, and his lower left leg appeared to be pinned against the boards as his momentum continued. Doughty was unable to put weight on his left leg after being on the ice for a short period of time and required assistance to get to the bench. Doughty then went into the tunnel and did not return to the game. There is no update on Doughty’s status at this time, but an announcement is expected in the coming days.

As for the rest of the game, the Kings had a strong first period and had two goals to show for it. Starting with a power play goal, Kevin Fiala drove a puck toward the net with his backhand as the man advantage dwindled, but a heads-up play by net-front Alex Turcotte quickly retrieved the puck and fed a backdoor to Alex Laferriere for the game’s opening goal with 5:21 remaining. It was 20 seconds later that the mid-season break struck again as newcomer Tanner Jeannot took the glove side and doubled the Kings’ lead. The strong opening period officially scored the shots 16-3 in favor of the Kings.

The Golden Knights cut into the Kings’ lead early in the second period when recently extended Noah Hanifin fired a quick pass into the a-slot past Darcy Kuemper, who was making his first preseason appearance for the Kings. Less than six minutes later, another Kings rookie found the net to put the Kings up by two goals again. This time it was net-front Warren Foegele finishing off a quick tic-tac-toe move by Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield. Both Fiala and Byfield earned their second assists of the game on the goal.

Kuemper played the first 40 minutes and stopped 12 of 13 shots before handing the net to Carter George in the third period.

There, the Golden Knights brought the score back within 5:06 of the final 20. A botched cross-ice defensive zone pass from Laferriere resulted in a turnover in the slot and quickly ended up in the back of the net. Never fear, the Kings silenced the Golden Knights for the remaining 14:54 of regulation and emerged victorious.

George, the 18-year-old player who was selected second overall in last year’s draft, stopped 11 of 12 shots.