Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves and stopped all three attempts in a shootout to help the visiting Nashville Predators to a 2–1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, March 11.
Tommy Novak scored in regulation and Matt Duchene had the lone goal in the shootout for the Predators, who improved to 6–2–1 in their past nine games.
Mikey Anderson scored and Pheonix Copley made 29 saves for the Kings, who had their season-long, five-game winning streak snapped in the opener of a seven-game homestand.
The Kings took a 1–0 lead at 9:32 of the first period.
Gabriel Vilardi won a faceoff in the Nashville zone and the puck was briefly pinned against the wall before Alex Iafallo sprung it loose with a short pass to Vilardi in the right circle.
Vilardi spun and backhanded a pass to Anderson coming down the middle, and Anderson scored with a wrist shot.
Nashville went on its first power play when Iafallo was called for tripping against Ryan McDonagh with a minute left in the opening period.
After a faceoff in the Los Angeles zone, Cody Glass passed the puck back to Novak at the left point. He took a couple strides toward the Kings net and sent a wrist shot past Copley for his 10th goal of the season, becoming the sixth player for the Predators to reach double figures in goals this season.
The Predators went on their third power play at 13:20 of the third period after Adrian Kempe pulled off Jeremy Lauzon’s helmet for a roughing penalty. Copley made five saves on the penalty kill, his best came 16 seconds into the man advantage on a one-timer from Roman Josi from the right circle.
Nashville killed a power play that began with 2:37 left in the third period.
Los Angeles forward Kevin Fiala, who leads the team with 68 points, missed the game with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day. He was injured in a 5–2 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
