FINAL – Kings 4, Predators 5 (SO) – Clarke, Moore, Hiller

The LA Kings picked up a point for the fourth straight game but came up short in Nashville, dropping a 5-4 decision in a shootout against the Predators on Saturday evening at Bridgestone Arena.

Just shy of eight minutes into the game, the Kings opened the scoring as forward Adrian Kempe found the back of the net for the third consecutive game. After a shot on goal from forward Anze Kopitar broke the stick of Nashville netminder Juuse Saros, the Kings continued to pressure in the offensive zone before defenseman Brandt Clarke fed Kempe in the slot and he buried high glove side for his fifth goal of the season and the early lead.

It took Nashville only 93 seconds to answer, however, as forward Ryan O’Reilly tied the game from in tight. A shot from Predators defenseman Spencer Stastney was stopped by Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, but the puck trickled through Kuemper’s pads and into the crease. O’Reilly won the net-front battle and got a stick on the rebound, pushing it over the line and in for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-1 score.

Inside the opening minute of the second period, the Predators took their first lead of the evening. After a breakdown in neutral-zone coverage, Nashville found the space for a 2-on-0 break into the offensive zone. Skating down the right side of the slot, forward Matthew Wood fed forward Filip Forsberg with a cross-ice pass, which Forsberg one-timed past Kuemper and in for a 2-1 lead.

It took the Kings only 59 seconds to respond as the new-look fourth line scored in their first game together. After taking a pass from forward Alex Turcotte, forward Joel Armia rounded the net and looked to center the puck into the slot. Armia’s pass deflected off a Nashville skate, through the legs of Saros and in for his first goal as a member of the Kings organization and a 2-2 score.

The fourth line struck again just shy of four minutes later, as forward Corey Perry buried his second goal in as many games. Attacking off the rush, Armia danced his way into the slot and fed Perry at the back post, where he put home his 450th career regular-season goal in the NHL for a 3-2 lead. Perry is one of just seven active NHL players with 450 goals, the final two of which have come with the Kings.

The back-and-forth scoring continued as Nashville forward Cole Smith tied the game at 3-3 with a solo effort. Smith worked his way through the neutral zone with speed and attacked the Kings off the rush, through the middle of the ice. Smith found his way to the net between three Kings defenders and his shot deflected off an LA stick and in for his third goal of the season and another tie score.

With the halfway mark of the third period approaching, the Kings pulled back in front after a period of sustained offensive-zone pressure. Forward Trevor Moore fed the puck to Clarke at the point with a hard pass, tape-to-tape. Clarke used his instincts to activate and his shot on goal generated a big rebound in front, with Moore getting to the right area to put it home for the go-ahead goal, his third of the season in total.

O’Reilly made it a multi-goal game with just over five minutes to play in regulation, tying the game at four. Forsberg won a puck battle below the goal line in the offensive zone and after he worked the puck into the low slot, O’Reilly whacked at it, sending the shot past Kuemper on the glove hand to force the game into overtime, the sixth time in nine games the Kings have gone beyond the scheduled 60 minutes.

The Kings had two power-play chances late and came up empty on both, but got a 4-on-3 penalty kill in overtime to force the game into a shootout. Both teams scored three goals in the first eight rounds before forward Ozzy Wiesblatt found the winner in Round 9.

Hear from Moore, Clarke and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Brandt Clarke

Trevor Moore
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
Yeah, I think we’re still finding our way. That’s obviously a disappointing one, we felt like we had some good chances to win that game and we let it slip. Back at it tomorrow.

On if tonight feels like a point lost, as compared to a point gained
I think not being able to find ways to win in regulation right now is frustrating. It’s early in the season, we’re getting points and we’re finding our identity. We’ll be alright.

On if tonight feels like a point lost, as compared to a point gained
Yeah, I couldn’t really tell you. It felt like we were pretty competitive tonight, I thought that we carried play for a lot of it, scored four, maybe too many breakdowns on defense. Like I said, we’re finding our way, so just keep pushing.

On the start tonight and how the team skated throughout all four lines
Our Dallas game wasn’t the best, the best start anyway, so it was a big emphasis for us to have a good start. Perrs, Army and Turc really were great tonight, they drove us energy wise and that was great.

On his goal tonight and the performance of his line leading up to it
I thought we were working hard, winning a lot of battles, which is great and then obviously, shoutout to those guys again, Turc, Army and Perrs, those guys for getting them tired and forcing an icing and that gave us our time.

Jim Hiller
On tonight being a game the Kings needed to close out in regulation
Yeah, no question. I mean, we have to be able to close out that game, that’s our calling card. We didn’t give them much the second half, but we gave them rush chances, a 2-on-1, basically a breakaway. The quality of chances are uncharacteristic of what we typically give. You do that, you usually get burned.

On the chances the Kings gave up leading to goals against
There weren’t a lot of them, but the ones were egregious, just breakdowns from veteran players and it came back to bite us. That’s basically it. When you look at the game, the penalty kill has been struggling, but power play’s been going good. Tonight, our penalty kill does its job, and the power play couldn’t get it done. Yeah, it’s a frustrating loss, I’ll tell you that.

On the team’s overall play tonight and the skating legs throughout the 60 minutes
Yeah, I would say so. I thought Phil’s line was really good. They were good against Colorado in not a great game for our team. They were alright against Carolina, but tonight, they really established, re-established their identity, so I was really happy with that line in particular. Then, if you call it our fourth line, you get Armia and you get Perry to score, those are bonuses. We turned one over and they scored one, so we end up +1 from that line, but you can’t complain about the job they did in the minutes they got.

On the Armia – Turcotte – Perry line in Game 1 together
They were good, like everybody was pretty good. For me, the Danault line really stood out, but there were great plays by [the fourth line] in scoring the goals and really getting us back into the game. The Armia play to Perry on the 2-on-1 was one of the nicer goals we’ve seen this year. Good energy out of all four lines. We have to regroup and go back and get ready to do it again in short order.

On Brandt Clarke’s night tonight and his abilities in the offensive zone
He made a couple of really good plays and we were able to spend time in the o-zone, so that’s where he gets to show his greatest skills. It’s on us to make sure we’re forechecking and we’re winning puck battles, we’re getting the puck up to the top, and then he gets an opportunity to do his thing.

Notes –
– Forward Joel Armia (1-1=2) scored his first goal as a member of the LA Kings a few minutes prior to adding his fifth assist of the campaign, his fourth and fifth points (1-4=5) of the season. Armia is the 15th Finnish skater to score a goal for the Kings in franchise history.
– Winger Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season to extend his away goal and point streaks to a fifth game (5- 4=9), dating back to Oct. 11 in Winnipeg. Kempe’s stretch of five consecutive road games with a goal is tied for the longest such streak since Adam Deadmarsh (8 G) scored in six straight road games from Feb. 26 – March 18, 2002. Kempe now has 199 career goals and will be the 10th player in franchise history to record 200 goals in a Kings uniform the next time that he finds the back of the net.
– With fellow 2014 NHL Draftee Kevin Fiala scoring his 200th career goal on March 1, 2025, Kempe and Fiala can become the first pair of Kings teammates to record their 200th career goal in the same calendar year since Anze Kopitar (April 4, 2014) and Dustin Brown (Nov. 26, 2014) did so more than a decade ago.
– Forward Corey Perry (1-0=1) recorded his second goal in his last two games, becoming the first player in Kings history to score in consecutive appearances at age 40 or older, per NHL PR.
– Winger Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the season and now has points in three straight visits to Bridgestone Arena (1-2=3), dating back to Jan. 31, 2024.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-2=2) recorded his second and third assists of the campaign, his third and fourth career points against the Predators (0-4=4) in six total contests. Tonight also marked Clarke’s seventh career multi-point game, tying Mark Hardy for the 11th most by a blueliner age 22 or younger in franchise history.
– Winger Andrei Kuzmenko (0-1=1) tallied his fourth helper of the season, his seventh point (3-4=7) in 10 career matchups with the Nashville Predators.
– Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) posted his second assist of the year on Armia’s game-tying goal in the second period. Turcotte has three points (1-2=3) in four career games at Bridgestone Arena, including his first career goal on Jan. 31, 2024.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) notched his second assist of the season on Moore’s third period marker, his second assist in his past two visits to Nashville.

The Kings will not hold a morning skate tomorrow in Chicago and will return to the ice tomorrow evening at 4 PM Pacific against the Blackhawks at United Center.