Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Predators (4-3-2), who have won two straight games. Saros made 36 saves.
“I thought we stuck with it,” O’Reilly said. “That goal was obviously a little frustrating late in the game. You give up one and you can kind of just see, kind of even in the building, the life come out of it. But we talked on the bench, stick with it. Keep going. Stay with it. It’s not pretty, and we did. We just kind of kept our heads down and kept working.”
Armia had a goal and an assist for the Kings (3-3-3), who extended their point streak to four games (2-0-2). Kuemper made 21 saves.
“We have to be able to close out that game,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “That’s our calling card, right? We didn’t give them much in the second half, but we gave them rush chances, 2-on-0, a breakaway. So the quality of chances are uncharacteristic of what we typically give. When you do that, you usually get burned.”
Adrian Kempe gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 7:27 of the first period on a wrist shot from the slot.
“When you look at the whole 65 minutes, I think we were the better team,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We possessed the puck more. We kind of played the way we wanted to play, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. You can’t break down.”