In Nashville, the Los Angeles Kings rallied from a 3-1 deficit on Tuesday night for a 4-3 win after the skills competition.
LA’s Matt Roy hot for a double in the third period to erase the two-goal deficit and force the extra session that solved nothing.
“Guys are excited and happy for each other,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “Back-to-back early in the year, in this building it doesn’t happen often. Our guys had a good mindset going into the third.
“I didn’t think we were bad throughout the night. A lot of momentum swings again because of penalties, both our team and their team. I didn’t think being down two was a disaster. We did some good things, stuck with it and found a way to win a game.”
Cal Petersen made 29 saves in the LA win.
“When you do stuff like this, it just goes to show [that] when we inevitably get in these sort of games where we are down or seemingly out of it, we can reach back and know that … we’ve done it before,” Petersen said. “These are huge for our confidence. I think this is what defines a team. I think it’s incredible that we were able to do that.”
The Predators were penalized nine times n the game.
“It starts with the penalties,” Predators coach John Hynes said. “Offensive-zone penalties, penalties on the power play, penalties at key times. You can’t get any momentum when you do that. You’re putting their top guys on the ice.
“I thought the third period, our decision-making with the puck didn’t set us up to be able to play in the attack. We had to take on a lot of water.”
Gabriel Vilardi scored in regulation for the Kings, and had the only strike in the skills portion of the affair.
“It’s not often we’re talking about Matt scoring two to tie the game in the third period, but he has that ability,” McLellan said. “He’s got tremendous legs and he’s strong. He went to the net. He knows the score. He can gamble a little bit more, and he did a real good job. Big night.”
Cody Glass, Filip Forsberg, and Tanner Jeannot scored for Nashville.
“I think we just stopped playing offense,” Forsberg said. “Not necessarily that extreme, but I think we’re taking on way too much heat. We’ve got to be able to make plays under pressure. We knew they were going to come out hard with the forecheck in the third. I mean, they’re obviously down two and desperate. So, that’s something that we definitely have to work on going forward.”
Juuse Saros made 32 saves in the Nashville loss.
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