LOS ANGELES — For anyone who had heard that the Kings had been dominant at home and arrived at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening to see them take on the Nashville Predators, there might have been some serious confusion, though the end result still tracked.
They put a scanty six shots on goal through two periods but ultimately prevailed, 1-0, in overtime, stretching their winning streak to five games and bumping their stellar home record to 23-3-4. For a second straight game, the win lifted them over the Edmonton Oilers, who ended the night one point back of the Kings for second place in the Pacific Division.
The massively disappointing Preds’ already-thin ranks were further depleted, and their legs were weary as well. They were without their best player and captain, defenseman Roman Josi (upper-body), and their top goalie, Juuse Saros. He was rested as a consequence of having played 22 hours earlier at Honda Center, where Nashville fell to the Ducks to snap a four-game winning streak.
Quinton Byfield scored his third overtime goal of the year and fourth game-winner overall. Darcy Kuemper stopped all 24 shots he faced for his 2nd straight shutout.
Justus Annunen stopped 20 of 21 pucks thrown at him for Nashville.
The Kings have won nine of 12 games against the top four teams by record in the NHL (Carolina, Dallas, Vegas, Washington and Winnipeg) but, even with Saturday’s win, only five of 11 against its bottom five clubs (Buffalo, Chicago, Nashville, San Jose and Seattle).
Even notable misses in regulation were tough to come by on Saturday. Joel Edmundson’s bomb of a one-timer from the point in the third period and a Vladislav Gavrikov shot-pass to create a chance in tight for Trevor Moore in the first stood out somewhat. For Nashville, Kuemper served up a giveaway in the high slot for leading scorer Filip Forsberg but recovered to make the save.
But OT belonged to the Kings, culminating in Adrian Kempe’s pass across for a redirection by Byfield during a two-on-one rush keyed by Brandt Clarke. With 1:40 showing on the clock, Byfield replicated his feat.
Quinton Byfield hit the post with a shot in the first minute, after a third period that saw the Kings more pucks to the net, 12, than they did in the other stanzas combined.
After putting just four strikes on net in the first period, the Kings followed it up with just two in the second as they shot the puck high, wide and into defenders repeatedly. Kuemper’s workload was also relatively light.
Twenty minutes came and went with a whimper, with the Kings attempting 21 shots but hitting the net just four times. Nashville produced a snooze of a first period just as it did at Honda Center a night earlier in a 2-1 loss to the Ducks.