Quinton Byfield scored for the sixth straight game at 3:20 of overtime to lift the Los Angeles Kings to a 1-0 win against the visiting Nashville Predators on Saturday evening.
Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for his second consecutive shutout for the Kings, who have won five in a row to retake second place in the Pacific Division.
Kuemper has four shutouts overall this season and 35 for his 13-year NHL career.
Kuemper had not allowed a goal in seven straight periods entering the overtime, and the Kings finished it off when Adrian Kempe made a short centering pass to Byfield and he shot the puck into the net.
Byfield is the first Los Angeles player to score in six straight games since Luc Robitaille 32 years ago.
Los Angeles also ran its home point streak to 12 games (9-0-3), the third-longest home-point streak in franchise history behind 13-game runs in 2022-23 (11-0-2) and 1992-93 (12-0-1).
Justus Annunen made 20 saves for the Predators, who were coming off a 2-1 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday that snapped a four-game winning streak.
Nashville allowed just 15 shots on goal against Anaheim.
Annunen was trying for his third NHL shutout.
He produced his only two NHL shutouts in back-to-back games last season against the Chicago Blackhawks while he was a member of the Colorado Avalanche.
The Predators outshot the Kings 7-4 in the first period. Los Angeles took 19 shots, but 10 were blocked and five were off target.
The Kings did not have a shot on goal until 11:19 of the first period, and that was the only shot on net on a power play.
The Kings had trouble getting shots through to start the second as well and didn’t get their first shot on net until the 10:58 mark.
The Kings killed two penalties earlier in the period, giving them 15 straight kills.
Los Angeles was getting outshot 12-4 at halfway point of the second period.
–Field Level Media
