Los Angeles, CA – The Nashville Predators finally found their way into the win column last night with a convincing win over the L.A. Kings, 4-1.
With a depleted line-up, the injury plagued Predators played a team game and stopped their three game losing streak.
This is the first of a back-to-back series in Southern California with the Anaheim Ducks on tap this afternoon at 2:00pm.
Rocco Grimaldi got things started for Nashville at 10:21 of the opening period when his wrist shot beat Jack Campbell in net for the 1-0 lead. Rocco grabbed his own rebound to net the early marker.
It was a bit of Deja Vu for the Predators who took an early 2-0 lead against the Dallas Stars at the Winter Classic. Head coach Peter Laviolette had high praise for his Captain after the game saying he had been playing this way all season.
The Kings found their way on the board at 5:57 of the second period when Alex Iafallo scored on the L.A power play to make it 2-1.
Yakov Trenin gave Nashville a two goal cushion at 9:37 of the third period when he re-directed a Matt Irwin shot into the back of the net, for the 3-1 lead.
Craig Smith would give us the final score at 10:46 with a sweet backhand into the twine for the 4-1 final score. Pekka Rinne picked up the win for the Predators with 23 stops on the night.
The Nashville Predators are short-handed with Ryan Ellis, Matt Duchene, Colton Sissons and Dante Fabbro absent from the line-up with illness or injury.
Nashville hopes to string back-to-back wins together today against the Ducks before returning home next week to host the Boston Bruins.
