Carter scores late in OT to lift Kings past Predators
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Kings will take having to work overtime every night if they keep winning.
Jeff Carter tipped a shot past Pekka Rinne at 4:31 of overtime to lift Los Angeles to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night for the Kings' fourth straight win.
During the four-game winning streak, three have come in overtime and one in a shootout.
"We'd like to limit our overtime and shootout games and save ourselves a little bit," Carter said. "But if it takes us to overtime every night to win games, then that's what it is."
Jake Muzzin and Tyler Toffoli also scored for Los Angeles and Nic Dowd and Alec Martinez each had two assists. Peter Budaj stopped 24 shots while making his third straight start in place of the injured Jeff Zatkoff.
Craig Smith and Viktor Arvidsson scored for Nashville, and Rinne finished with 42 saves.
After scoring a power play goal in six straight games to open the season the Predators went 0 for 3 with the man advantage.
"It's not coming easy right now as far as offense," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "The goals are just hard to come by right now for a lot of our guys. But I asked for a better effort. Our guys gave that today. But in the end we've got to find points. We've got to find wins, and we've got to continue to push for that."
The Predators weren't satisfied with an overtime loss but were happy with how they bounced back after the Ducks game and were able to earn a point.
"All we can control is our effort and I liked that tonight," Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. "I know there's a lot of things we can do better, but we can't get too frustrated."
One night after giving up six goals to Anaheim, the Predators allowed the Kings to come back and tie the game twice before losing in the extra period.
The Kings got an overtime power play when Smith hooked Anze Kopitar on the side boards 55 seconds in and had several quality chances, but the Predators killed it off. However, Kopitar found Carter in front of the net for the winner in the final minute.
"Just glad it went in," Carter said. "It's been a little bit of a battle lately, but nice play by Kopi right off the draw. Kopi got it loose up top and it kind of bounced around in some skates and popped out to me."
Smith opened the scoring in the second period when he scored on his own rebound at 10:56. Smith tried for the wraparound but Budaj kicked the puck out to the slot, where Smith muscled through his defenders to get the shot off and past the goalie.
Muzzin tied it just over five minutes later with a point shot through traffic on the power play.
With 19 seconds left in the second period, James Neal was awarded an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he took Drew Doughty's stick and tossed it in the air. However, Nashville took the lead when Arvidsson broke away for a short-handed goal 1 minute into the third.
Just as the power play expired 41 seconds later, Rinne lost track of Dowd's shot from the right circle, letting it slip under his pads and into the crease, where a waiting Toffoli was there to sweep it in and tie the score.
NOTES: Nashville is now 3-0-2 in its last five trips to Staples Center. ... Kings coach Darryl Sutter got his 599th career regular-season victory. ... Carter's goal was his 589th career point. ... Kings D Matt Greene and F Teddy Purcell were each healthy scratches for the fifth straight game.
UP NEXT
Predators: At San Jose on Saturday night in the middle game of its five-game trip.
Kings: At St. Louis on Saturday night.