Forsberg, Predators stay hot with 4-2 victory over Kings

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for his third straight multi-point outing, Matt Duchene got his first goal in 10 games and the Nashville Predators extended their winning streak to three with a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.

Forsberg tops the NHL with 12 goals since Nov. 30 as Nashville has gone 11-2-1 in its last 14 games to grab the Central Division lead.

Matt Luff and Yakov Trenin also scored for the Predators, and Roman Josi added two assists. Juuse Saros stopped 46 shots, tied for the fourth-most of his career.

Dustin Brown and Martin Frk scored for Los Angeles, which lost despite having a 48-20 advantage in shots. Jonathan Quick made 16 saves.

Nashville’s power-play unit remained hot with two goals in the first period. Forsberg scored from the right circle at 3:49 for his third power-play goal of the season. Duchene extended the lead with 59 seconds left in the period when he made a nice move past Kings center Rasmus Kupari and put a shot under Quick’s leg pads.

It was Duchene’s 14th of the season, but first since Nov. 27 against Colorado.

The Predators have scored nine goals with the man advantage in their last seven games.

Luff, who played three seasons for the Kings, scored his first goal of the year at 2:49 of the second period when he knocked in his own rebound after Quick made a pad save on his initial shot.

Brown, playing his first game since Dec. 19, got the Kings on the board 9:37 into the second on a breakaway after Nashville’s Alexandre Carrier whiffed on a shot in the LA zone.

Frk made it 3-2 with a power-play goal at 10:33 of the third. The right wing was making his NHL season debut after being second in the American Hockey League in goals and assists.

Trenin put it out of reach for Nashville on an empty-net goal with 1:11 remaining.

DOMINATING LA

Nashville improved to 14-2-6 and has won nine of its last 10 against Los Angeles. The Predators are 7-1-3 in their last 11 visits to crypto.com Arena.

DENIED AGAIN

The Kings got their second penalty shot in the past three games, but Adrian Kempe couldn’t put it in the net. Saros made a nice stop with his blocker to keep Nashville’s lead at three goals 5:06 into the second period.

UP NEXT

Predators: Wrap up their road trip against the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.

Kings: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

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