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The Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators in a shootout tonight, marking their third straight win on the road.
Alex Iafallo was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury today, so Arthur Kaliyev was back in the lineup. Alex Edler remained out, while Cal Petersen made his second start of the season.
The Kings found themselves down right away, as Cody Glass beat Cal Petersen with a pretty weak wrist shot to open the scoring only a little over a minute into the game. Los Angeles took over for most of the period after that, outshooting Nashville 11-5 in the frame, but couldn’t convert and remained down after 20 minutes.
Nashville took a few penalties early in the second frame though and Los Angeles took advantage, with Arthur Kaliyev’s shot being tipped in by Gabriel Vilardi on a power play. The Predators managed to take their lead back only a little later though, with Filip Forsberg burying a nice pass from Mikael Granlund. They went on to outshoot the Kings 18-7 in the frame and with under a minute to go in the period, Tanner Jeannot beat Petersen on a wraparound to put Los Angeles down 3-1 through two periods.
The Kings continued to get power play opportunities in the third period though and outshot Nashville by a huge 15-3 margin. Los Angeles wasn’t able to capitalize on the opportunities, however, after a power play expired, Brendan Lemiuex came down the wing and put the puck to the net, with it being directed in by Matt Roy. Then with only about two minutes to play and the teams at 4-on-4, Roy came up big again, taking a pass from Vilardi and beating Saros to tie the game. Neither team could break the tie in the final couple minutes, so the teams went to overtime.
After some great chances were exchanged in an exciting overtime, Drew Doughty took a holding penalty in an effort to stop Filip Forsberg from driving to the net. The Kings ended up managing to kill off the penalty with some good blocks and stops by Petersen though, sending the game to a shootout.
In the shootout, after Filip Forsberg, Kevin Fiala and Matt Duchene all missed, Gabriel Vilardi made a great move to deke Saros and put the Kings ahead. Roman Josi needed to score, but Cal Petersen came up with the save, securing a win.
It was a great effort from the Kings to battle back, especially in the second-half of a back-to-back on the road. Despite being outplayed through the middle chunk of the game, they still put together a pretty strong opening period, and played well in the third. The Kings ended up outshooting Nashville 35-32 overall.
One issue though was the team’s trouble converting on their power play chances. They had eight opportunities on the man advantage but only capitalized on a single one. That said, they also killed off all five of Nashville’s power plays, so special teams didn’t end up hurting them.
Cal Petersen didn’t look good on two of the goals tonight, but he did make some key saves in overtime to keep the Kings in the game.
Gabriel Vilardi also continued his excellent start to the season, with a goal and an assist tonight, not to mention the shootout winner. Over his first five games, he’s already managed four goals and seven points.
It’s a great stretch for the Kings, going 3-for-3 against some competitive teams on this road trip so far. They now sit at a 3-2-0 record and have turned things around after a disappointing start in their first two games.
The Kings’ next game comes on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Kings announce opening night roster
Late goal sinks Kings in opening night loss to Golden Knights
Brandt Clarke makes NHL debut in Kings' 4-1 loss to Kraken
Kings pick up first win of season in Kevin Fiala's return to Minnesota
Kings earn key overtime win in Detroit 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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