Saturday, November 7, 2009

Predators Surprise Kings with 3-1 Win

The Nashville Predators surprised everyone Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center. It was only the King's second home loss in regulation this year.

It was a rare non-televised game so it was only seen by the 15,237 that were in attendance. Everyone else was left to imagine the on ice action through the play-by-play call of their favorite announcers.

The game was scoreless until late in the second period when Francis Bouillon scored his first goal of the season at 16:38 on the power play. Assists were awarded to Cody Franson and Marty Erat.

The Preds took a 2-0 lead in the third period when Cody Franson nailed a slapshot on a feed from Marty Erat. Andreas Thuresson had his first NHL point on the secondary assist.

The Kings came back at 8:25 in the third with a power play goal on a tip by Dustin Brown. A little over a minute later Joel Ward put a wrister past Jonathon Quick to regain the two goal advantage for the Predators.

The Predator defense held firm for the remainder of the game despite the Kings 15 shot barrage during the final period.

Dan Ellis re-established himself in net stopping 27 of 28 Los Angeles shots. Those in attendance tweeted that he got several lucky bounces in the early stages of the game that undoubtedly contributed to his confidence.

Marty Erat had his first multi-point game of the year with two assists in his first game back from injury. In his second game back, Jason Arnott's minutes were down substantially with only 20 shifts and 14:23 in ice time.

Shea Weber has joined the team but did not skate today as he recovers from his foot injury. J. P. Dumont (back) and Colin Wilson (groin) remain in Nashville rehabilitating.

With the win, the Predators returned to the .500 mark at 7-7-1. The Preds travel north to the Bay area where they will play San Jose on Tuesday night.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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