nhl

Gabriel Vilardi scores in shootout, Kings rally to beat Preds

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Defenseman Matt Roy scored twice in the third period to tie the game for Los Angeles, and Gabriel Vilardi had a goal in regulation and the lone shootout tally as the visiting Kings rallied for a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Down 3-1 after two periods, Los Angeles was relentless during the third, when it owned a 15-3 shots-on-goal advantage. Roy, who had no more than four goals in any of his four previous seasons, scored two of his three on the young campaign to force overtime and beyond.

First, his leg deflected in Brendan Lemieux’s puck toward the net to make it a one-goal contest with 7:00 remaining regulation. Then with 2:08 to play, Roy got the puck in an open lane and beat Nashville’s Juuse Saros (32 saves) to tie the game.

Vilardi delivered a nifty move to beat Saros for the lone offense of the shootout. Kings netminder Cal Petersen (29 saves) was solid in overtime and stopped all three shots in the shootout to stymie Nashville, which has dropped three straight after taking two from San Jose in Prague.

Nashville scored 1:32 into the contest, when Cody Glass took a blue-line pass from Mikael Granlund (two assists), streaked in and beat Peterson on the Predators’ first shot of the game. Los Angeles outshot Nashville 11-5 and was on the power play twice during the opening period, but had nothing to show for it.

However, after failing to take advantage of a 5-on-3 power play early in the second period, the Kings finally converted with the man advantage at 4:24 into the middle frame. Arthur Kaliyev threw the puck toward the front of the net, where Vilardi deflected it in through Saros’ legs.

Nashville regained the lead with 11:28 left in the second when Granlund set up Filip Forsberg for a successful drive past Petersen. Then with 30.4 seconds remaining in the middle period, Tanner Jeannot jammed in his own rebound for a two-goal Predators edge.

Nashville held an 18-7 shot advantage in the second.

–Field Level Media

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x