Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Nashville Predators were wobbling before Calle Jarnkrok and Viktor Arvidsson connected on a big play.
Jarnkrok stole a pass and fed Arvidsson for a breakaway goal 4:40 into overtime, sending Nashville to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.
“We played a pretty good game up until the third,” Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. “But at the end of the day, we got two points.”
Coming off a 5-3 victory at Anaheim on Friday night, Nashville jumped out a 3-0 lead against Los Angeles on goals by Miikka Salomaki, P.K. Subban and Craig Smith. But the Kings responded with an impressive rally in the third — only to come up short in overtime.
“Things don’t always go the way they’re scheduled to go in a hockey game,” Kings coach John Stevens said.
Each team played their backup goaltender. Juuse Saros stopped 36 shots for Nashville, and Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves for Los Angeles.
“I thought (Saros) played really well,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “He made save after save. It got to 3-3 and he made a save or two that allowed us the opportunity to play for another point.”
The Kings got on the board 16 seconds into the third when Anze Kopitar fed a wide-open Alex Iafallo near the net. It was Iafallo’s first career goal after 32 shots this season.
“I finally got the weight lifted off the back,” Iafallo said. “It’s a tough way to lose but I feel like we battled hard and we’ve just got to keep working hard.”
Their second goal came after a faceoff in the neutral zone. Christian Folin fired a shot from just past the red line by a surprised Saros. It was Folin’s first of the season.
The Kings tied it on Alec Martinez’s power-play slap shot by Saros at 12:16. Kopitar picked up his second assist of the game and No. 10 on the season.
“I don’t think we stopped playing, but they were able to tie it up,” Laviolette said. “I like that in the situation we were in, we fought back and continued to push and won the game.”
It was Arvidsson’s fifth goal of the season.
“It was a nice pass by Calle,” he said. “I skated into it. I just tried to find a hole to put it in.”
NOTES: The Predators are 18-11-0-6 all-time against the Kings in Los Angeles. ... It was the second time this season the Predators played games on successive nights. They won their first game against the Blackhawks on Oct. 27 and then lost the next night to the New York Islanders.
UP NEXT
Predators: Complete their four-game road trip Tuesday at the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Kings: Slide over to the next county on Tuesday to play at the Anaheim Ducks.
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