Frozen Fury


Frozen Fury was an annual pre-season ice hockey game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League, held in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1997 to 2016. On three occasions, the Los Angeles Kings faced different teams instead of the Avalanche, once each against the Arizona Coyotes, the San Jose Sharks, and the New York Rangers. The 15th Frozen Fury was originally supposed to take place on September 29, 2012, but was cancelled due to the NHL lockout. It resumed September 27–28, 2013, with the New York Rangers making their debut in the series.
The first game to be played in Las Vegas was also the first outdoor game in the league's history: 14,000 fans came to a rink set up outside Caesars Palace to see the Kings defeat the New York Rangers 5–2 on September 28, 1991. The air temperature was 85 °F during the game. The game served as a predecessor to both the Frozen Fury series and the NHL Winter Classic, the annual regular season game held on New Year's Day that began in 2008.
From 1997 to 2015, these games were played at MGM Grand Garden Arena; in 2016, they were played at T-Mobile Arena. The 2016 games were the end of the tradition, because of the launch of the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017–18 season. Both Colorado and Los Angeles have continued to play preseason games in Las Vegas, against the Golden Knights, each year since then.

The games

Frozen Fury I (1997)

;Scoring summary
PeriodTeamGoalAssistTimeScore
1stCOLJosef MarhaBrent Severyn, Eric Messier13:131–0 COL
2ndLAKRoman Vopat Brad Smyth2:061–1
2ndCOLEric MessierJari Kurri, Joe Sakic14:512–1 COL
3rdLAKOlli Jokinen Luc Robitaille, Ray Ferraro4:122–2
3rdLAKCraig JohnsonRob Blake12:273–2 LAK
3rdCOLJoe SakicPeter Forsberg, Claude Lemieux19:203–3
OTLAKDonald MacLeanDoug Zmolek, Jan Vopat2:514–3 LAK

Frozen Fury II (1998)

Frozen Fury III (1999)

Frozen Fury IV (2000)

Frozen Fury V (2001)

Frozen Fury VI (2002)

Frozen Fury VII (2003)

Frozen Fury VIII (2005)

Frozen Fury IX (2006)

Frozen Fury X (2007)

Frozen Fury XI (2008)

Frozen Fury XII (2009)

Frozen Fury XIII (2010)

Frozen Fury XIV (2011)

Frozen Fury XV (2013)

;Scoring summary
PeriodTeamGoalAssistTimeScore
1stLAKAnze KopitarDrew Doughty, Justin Williams0:151–0 LAK
1stLAKJeff Carter Mike Richards, Matt Frattin11:392–0 LAK
1stNYRJ. T. MillerAnton Stralman, Oscar Lindberg14:062–1 LAK
1stLAKMike Richards Unassisted17:273–1 LAK
2ndLAKTrevor LewisJarret Stoll, Robyn Regehr16:154–1 LAK
3rdNo scoring this period

;Scoring summary
PeriodTeamGoalAssistTimeScore
1stLAKMike Richards Unassisted16:381–0 LAK
2ndLAKMike Richards 2 Matt Frattin, Jarret Stoll0:142–0 LAK
2ndCOLRyan O'ReillySteve Downie, Matt Duchene8:112–1 LAK
2ndCOLGabe LandeskogAlex Tanguay, Andre Benoit12:582–2
2ndCOLGabe Landeskog 2 Andre Benoit, Paul Stastny16:063–2 COL
3rdNo scoring this period

Frozen Fury XVI (2014)

Frozen Fury XVII (2015)

Frozen Fury XVIII (2016)

Records