O’Reilly has goal, assist in Predators win against Kings 

LOS ANGELES -- Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist for the Nashville Predators, who handed the Los Angeles Kings their 10th loss in 11 games, 2-1 at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.

Gustav Nyquist also scored, and Roman Josi had an assist for the fifth straight game for the Predators (25-19-1), who have won three of four. Juuse Saros made 33 saves.

“I think the last four games, we’ve really found the way we want to play and how we should play to be successful, so just got to keep going with this,” Nyquist said.

Drew Doughty scored for the Kings (21-13-8), who are 1-6-4 in their past 11 games. David Rittich made 31 saves.

“We fixed one area tonight, we didn’t give up a lot,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “When we did, I thought Rittich played really well. The other end of the rink, you got to score goals to win. For only giving up two, we should be able to win every night.”

O’Reilly gave the Predators a 1-0 lead on the power play with a redirection in front off Josi’s shot from the point at 7:56 of the second period.

Nashville was 1-for-3 on the power play and has won five straight games when scoring on the man-advantage.

“We have to be more simple, get pucks to the net, win battles,” O’Reilly said. “Great heads up play by him to shoot it there, and I was just lucky to get a piece of it. Big goal tonight to kind of spark us and get some offense going.”

Doughty’s power-play goal, a one-timer through traffic from the high slot, tied it 1-1 at 8:52.

Los Angeles was 1-for-5 on the power play and scored just one goal for the second straight game (5-1 loss Tuesday at the Dallas Stars). The Kings have scored 24 goals in their past 11 games.

“We just got to figure it out, really,” Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar said. “We've got to play better in certain moments of the game. It’s not like the efforts not there and everybody wants to win, but we've got to play better.”

Nyquist gave Nashville a 2-1 lead at 13:40 of the second, putting in a rebound from the bottom of the left circle off Luke Schenn’s shot from the right point.

“That’s exactly what I was hoping for,” Nyquist said. “We got a great shot by ‘Schenner.’ It’s one of those pucks that comes right to your stick, and you've just got to bury it.”

NOTES: Josi has 30 assists for the third straight season and ninth time in the past 10. He had 25 assists in 48 games during the shortened 2020-21 season. Josi had five blocked shots. … Doughty has 10 goals in 42 games this season, reaching double digits for the first time since 2017-18.