FINAL – Kings 4, Predators 3 (SO) – Roy, Petersen, McLellan

The LA Kings used an impressive third-period comeback to claim their third consecutive victory, a 4-3 shootout win over the Nashville Predators.

Defenseman Matt Roy scored twice, his first career two-goal game in the NHL, while Gabe Vilardi had another multi-point night with a goal and an assist, plus the game-winning goal in the shootout. Goaltender Cal Petersen earned his second straight win, with 30 saves between the pipes, plus all three shots he faced in the shootout.

The Predators opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period. With a delayed penalty coming to the Kings, Nashville regrouped with the goaltender pulled and forward Cody Glass beat Petersen on the glove side off the rush, the first goal of the season for the Nashville centerman.

Midway through the second period, the Kings bounced back to knot the score at one with a power-play goal. After the visitors were unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 sequence, they struck at 5-on-4 throughVilardi, who redirected an Arthur Kaliyev shot to knot the game at one. Vilardi has scored in three straight games and is tied for the team lead in goals on the young season.

Nashville took a two-goal advantage into the second intermission, however, with a pair of second-period goals. First, forward Filip Forsberg fired a one-timer home from the left-hand circle, off a pass from Mikael Granlund, to put the hosts back on top. With less than a minute to play in the second, forward Tanner Jeannot doubled the deficit for LA, as he buried his own rebound off a wraparound effort for a 3-1 scoreline through 40 minutes.

The Kings fought back in the third period to tie the game at three, courtesy of a pair of goals from Matt Roy.

First, with seven minutes on the clock, the Kings converted off the rush to make it a 3-2 game. Brendan Lemieux went wide with a burst of speed before his centering pass hit a crashing Roy, who deflected the pass in for the goal. Inside three minutes to play, with the teams skating 4-on-4, Roy tied the game with a goal from the slot, off a centering feed from Vilardi, to bring the Kings level.

After a scoreless overtime, that included a penalty kill of nearly a full two minutes, the Kings prevailed in the shootout, as Petersen stopped all three shots he faced and Vilardi buried the lone goal.

Hear from Roy, Petersen and Head Coach Todd McLellan following the win.

Matt Roy

Cal Petersen
On the comeback win on the road
It’s huge. We’re going to inevitably have situations like this again throughout the season and we can reach back and know that we’ve done it before. It’s part of our identity now and it was part of it last year, so now we have the confidence that we’re never out of it and we can find ways to come back and get points, win games.

On building confidence throughout the evening, into the third period and overtime
Yeah, granted, we blocked a ton of shots, you know, Mikey had a game-saving block there, it would have been over in overtime but I mean, it was just trying to build through each of these games with confidence. I haven’t felt like I’ve been getting the results that I wanted in these games, so that’s been challenging. Right now, it’s just building with each game, so this is huge personally for my confidence, but, it just feels good to get rewarded with the win.

On seeing Matt Roy, a regular shot blocker, contribute with two goals
Yeah, I went back and started to squirt my water bottle when he got it alone in the slot because I know he always scores those. It was awesome. Another guy that it’s awesome to see get rewarded offensively, because he does so many things well defensively.

Todd McLellan
On completing the comeback and coming out of Nashville with two points
Very thrilled. Guys are excited and happy for each other, back-to-back early in the year, in this building, it doesn’t happen often but our guys had a good mindset going into third. I didn’t think we were bad throughout the night, a lot of momentum swings again because of penalties, both our team and their team, but I didn’t think being down two was a disaster. We did some good things, stuck with it and found a way to win a game.

On if tonight classifies as a “character win” for the group
Certainly. It’s hard early in the year to play back-to-back. We’ve played five games already, we played every second night and if you think about exhibition season even, when we started to play all the veteran players, we played every second night for two and a half weeks. That’s taxing both mentally and physically. Character with the comeback.

On Matt Roy chipping in with two goals in the third period to force overtime
It’s not often that we’re talking about Matt scoring two, to tie the game in the third period, but he has that ability. He’s got tremendous legs, he’s strong, he went to the net and he knows the score, he can gamble a little bit more and he did a real good job.Big night for him.

On Cal Petersen’s play down the stretch to secure the victory
At the end of the night, he had to make outstanding saves in overtime and he was excellent in the shootout and he’s won two games for us. So, for as much it’s been talked that he’s got to find his game, he’s won two twice and that’s a real good thing. I think he started to settle in. We talked about the disruption of his training camp and the fact that goalies take a little while to find their game, but all he’s done is won. He should be confident, he should feel good about himself and was a big part of the win.

Notes –

– Gabriel Vilardi tallied his fourth goal of the year plus his third multi-point effort of the season and he now has goals in three consecutive games. Vilardi has five points (3-2-5) in thoes last three games and is tied for the team lead in goals overall.
– Matt Roy recorded his third goal in his last three games and his first career two-goal game. Tonight also marked his second multi-point game of the season and the seventh of his career.
– Cal Petersen stopped 30-of-33 shots, in addition to all three Nashville shootout attempts, to earn his second victory of the season.
– The win tonight was the first shootout victory of the season in the NHL by any team.
– The Kings have won their first three road games of the season for the third time in franchise history, following the 2015-16 season and 1989-90 seasons.
– The Kings are the fourth team this season to record a multi-goal third period comeback, joining Anaheim (Oct. 12), Montreal (Oct. 17) and Washington (Oct. 17).

The Kings have a full team off day tomorrow and will re-take the ice for morning skate on Thursday in Pittsburgh.