Kings beat Predators in OT, extend win streak to 5 games
LOS ANGELES — For anyone who’d heard that the Kings were dominant at home and arrived at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening to see them take on the Nashville Predators, there might have been some serious confusion, though the end result still tracked.
They put a scanty six shots on goal through two periods but ultimately prevailed, 1-0, in overtime, stretching their winning streak to five games and bumping their stellar home record to 23-3-4.
For a second straight contest, the two points lifted them over the rival Edmonton Oilers, who ended the night one point back of the Kings for second place in the Pacific Division.
The massively disappointing Preds’ already-thin ranks were further depleted, and their legs were weary as well. They were without their best player and captain, defenseman Roman Josi (upper-body), and their top goalie, Juuse Saros. He was rested as a consequence of having played 22 hours earlier at Honda Center, where Nashville fell to the Ducks to snap a four-game winning streak.
Quinton Byfield extended his goal-scoring spree to six games and deposited his second overtime winner in a week. Darcy Kuemper denied all 24 shots he faced to earn his second consecutive shutout and third of the campaign.
Justus Annunen stopped 20 of 21 pucks thrown at him for Nashville.
“Today was what it was, guys found a way to stay with it and [Byfield] got a big goal to grab the extra point,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said.
The Kings have won nine of 12 games against the top five teams by record in the NHL (Carolina, Dallas, Vegas, Washington and Winnipeg) but, even with Saturday’s win, only five of 11 against its bottom five clubs (Buffalo, Chicago, Nashville, San Jose and Seattle).
Even notable close calls in regulation were tough to come by on Saturday, with icing calls outnumbering them easily. Joel Edmundson’s explosive one-timer from the point in the third period and a Vladislav Gavrikov shot-pass to create a chance in tight for Trevor Moore in the first stood out somewhat. Kuemper served up a giveaway in the high slot for Nashville’s leading scorer Filip Forsberg, but he recovered to make the save.”
Overtime, however, belonged to the Kings, culminating in Adrian Kempe’s powerful drive and pass across for a redirection by Byfield, who’d received the puck back after gaining the zone off a stretch pass from Brandt Clarke. With 1:40 showing on the clock, Byfield replicated his feat from last Saturday against St. Louis while scoring his third overtime goal, fourth game-winner and 17th goal overall this season.
“That was a great breakout pass from (Clarke). I kind of mishandled it and then (Kempe) was flying down the wing, using his size and skill to make that play, and I just had to put my stick on the ice,” Byfield said.
Byfield had also dinged the post with a shot in the first minute of the extra session, after a third period that saw the Kings get twice as many pucks to the net, 12, as they did in the other stanzas combined.
“They played [twice] within 22 hours, it was a quick turnaround for them,” Byfield said. “For us, it wasn’t the cleanest game of hockey. Darcy has been unreal for us, he did it again for us, giving a chance in that game. We were trying to make too many plays and we just weren’t sharp.”
After putting just four strikes on net in the first period, the Kings followed it up with only two in the second as they sent the puck high, wide and into defenders repeatedly. Kuemper’s workload was also relatively light, though he had to be more vigilant than the effectively unoccupied Annunen.
Twenty minutes came and went with a whimper, as Nashville produced a snooze of a first period just as it did at Honda Center a night earlier in a 2-1 loss to the Ducks.
“We had to make sure we didn’t get frustrated,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said.“The attempts were there, but they blocked a lot and we missed a lot. If you just start staring at that board, and you [see] five and six, that doesn’t look or feel very good, and that can make it worse. We tried to focus more on the attempts we were getting.”
On Monday, the Kings will take their show on the road to Minnesota, answering the call of the Wild and seeking to equal their season-best surge of six straight games in the win column.