The Nashville Predators found relief of sorts in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The Preds scored twice and the first and third periods and defeated the Kings, 4-1.
Pekka Rinne made 23 saves in win over LA – file photo by Les Stockton
Pekka Rinne made 23 saves in the win.
Roman Josi collected two assists to push his point streak to nine games.
“You get lucky sometimes, I think,” Josi said. “Sometimes pucks bounce your way, they go in. I think, personally, I’ve been trying to play my game all year, and no matter what happens, I try to just stick to my game. I think I’ve been doing that the last couple games, and I guess that the bounces just went my way the last couple games.”
Alex Iafallo scored the lone goal for the Kings.
“Quite disappointed in the group,” LA head coach Todd McLellan said. “Haven’t said that very often with our team, but I just thought one team was so much more intense and hard and committed to doing it over and over again, and another team was gonna try and win it the easy way.”
Rocco Grimaldi and Ryan Johansen scored in the opening frame for Nashville.
“It was awesome,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said of Josi’s assist on the Grimaldi goal. “I mean, he’s (Josi) been doing that all year. And it wasn’t just that play. He was attacking the offensive zone whenever he saw a seam or saw a crack in it, and just pushing the pace offensively, was beautiful play all the way from the blue line.”
Yakov Trenin and Craig Smith added goals in the third.
“I mean, they’ve (Nashville defense) been great all year, and it’s the same as last year,” Grimaldi said. “We had a lot of injuries last year, probably even more than this year, and guys have stepped up. When guys are either getting called up or moving up the lineup or whatever it is, they’re hungry to prove that they belong here, and it helps our team and creates more competition.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Kings highlights]
Jack Campbell made 34 saves in the loss.
“Perhaps this is good for our team, a little piece of humble pie won’t hurt us right now,” McLellan said. “Gives us an indication that we still got a lot of work to do.”
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