In Nashville Monday night, the Predators’ Ryan Johansen scored once and added two assists in a 5-2 whacking of the Los Angeles Kings.
Filip Forsberg scored his 30th in win over Kings – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“It’s very special,” Johansen said. “We’ve got a lot of young bodies in this room. I think when they go home tonight, they’re going to look at the standings and the result tonight and say ‘Wow, we beat one of the best teams in the League and a team that’s talked about a lot as a Stanley Cup contender.’ We definitely use it as confidence throughout our group in this room and maybe being the playoff matchup.”
James Neal, Mike Fisher, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi also scored for the Predators.
“That’s a good team over there,” Nashville’s Shea Weber said. “That’s a big team, a heavy team. I thought we were really good for two periods. Kind of a slow start in the third, but we knew they were going to come with a push and we had to answer back.”
LA managed goals from Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez.
Jhonas Enroth replaced Jonathan Quick (24 saves) in the third period with the score 3-0 to start the period.
Doughty scored early in the frame and Martinez made it 3-2 but that was all the Kings could muster.
“We come out in the third and we score right away,” Kings forward Anze Kopitar said. “I think there was 12 minutes left when we scored the second one too, you know we were right back in it. But then the fourth [Predators goal] was the one that kind of sunk us. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes. Bottom line is you can’t play a period like we did in the second tonight. You can’t take a period like that off.”
Pekka Rinne made 28 saves in the win.
“I thought tonight we were really quick,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “Those are tough situations. It’s a 3-2 game and we’re finding ourselves shorthanded a few times there in the third. It’s not the third period that you draw up or you hope to happen, and the penalty kill really came through tonight.”
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