They say mistakes aren’t worth making if you don’t learn from them. On Saturday, the Nashville Predators proved they learned.
In front of 18,118 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Preds squandered another multi-goal lead but, unlike Thursday against Phoenix, pulled out the victory, winning 4-3.
Carter Hutton made 36 saves on the night and improved to 3-1-1 on the year.
David Legwand got things started early in the contest. After receiving a pass from Seth Jones at the point, Legwand turned toward the net while on the power play. But, instead of shooting immediately, he carried into the high slot, eventually wristing a shot past Jonathan Quick to make it 1-0.
An incredible tic-tac-toe on the man advantage put Nashville up by two. Mike Fisher, along the boards, found Patric Hornqvist at the side of the net but, instead of shoot, he took a split second to find a breaking Shea Weber who tapped it into an empty net to make it 2-0, Preds.
The Kings pulled within one when Anze Kopitar deposited a Jake Muzzin rebound past Hutton in the final minute of the opening period.
In the second stanza, the Predators re-gained the two goal lead thanks to Eric Nystrom. Paul Gaustad created space by taking Kings defenseman Drew Doughty out of the play along the boards. Hornqvist picked up the puck and put a backhand pass toward the slot where Nystrom was camped out. All the former first round pick had to do was wrist it past Quick to make the score 3-1, Predators.
Los Angeles captain Dustin Brown used an innocent shot on goal with just over 10:00 remaining to pull his team within one.
It looked like Nashville was about to suffer deja vu from Thursday’s game in Glendale, Arizona when, with less than 9:00 remaining, the Kings were able to tie the game on yet another rebound. Rookie forward Tyler Toffoli put a shot on net through traffic and Mike Richards potted his third of the season to pull the teams even.
Just when overtime looked unavoidable, Legwand won a faceoff deep in the Los Angeles zone. The puck came back to Mattias Ekholm who fired a shot from the point. Quick kicked the save out right to Legwand who buried his second of the game and fourth of the season to make it 4-3, Nashville.
The win gives the Predators three out of a possible four points on this road trip so far. They have three days off here before playing the Western Conference leading Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Wednesday night.
Puck drops at 8:30pm Central.