LOS ANGELES — It was pinball hockey on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Neither the Kings nor the Nashville Predators seemed to have a firm grasp of the puck, which careened off skates, sticks and players on a night when teams battling for a playoff spot might have hoped for more.
The Predators (30-25-2, 62 points) inched closer to their hosts in the Western Conference playoff race, besting the Kings (28-17-10, 66 points), 4-1, to take the three-game season series with a pair of wins in L.A. and a home loss at the end of January.
Nashville didn’t get a shot on goal for nearly six minutes.
The Kings, who saw their four-game winning streak end while losing for just the second time in seven games under interim coach Jim Hiller, endured a drought of nearly seven minutes.
With things not clicking on either side, the Predators took advantage of a pass that had been knocked down in the Kings’ zone when Colton Sissons fed the puck to Yakov Trenin, who was well-positioned for a first-time slap shot from the right circle.
Rittich appeared to have the angle covered, so Trenin continued skating across the face of the goal and switched to the backhand for his ninth goal of the season at 8:47 of the first period while Rittich looked stuck in concrete.
The Kings got back into the game late in the period while working a two-man advantage following high stick and tripping penalties against Nashville.
At 19:07, Anze Kopitar’s 29th assist of the season found Kevin Fiala, who snapped off a shot from the high slot to beat Juuse Saros on the glove side for his 15th goal of the campaign.
Drafted in the first round by Nashville in 2014, the power-play goal marked the 400th NHL point for the winger, though he wasn’t very interested in celebrating being the fourth Swiss-born player to reach that marker.
“Overall, passing-wise, it just wasn’t our style,” Fiala said. “Not much energy from us like we usually have. Not a good night for us.
“We didn’t skate…
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