Evangelista's shootout heroics secured a dramatic win after Nashville squandered a three-goal lead, pushing past the Kings in a thrilling eight-round conclusion.
After sufficing a three-goal lead and needing to go to a shootout, Luke Evangelista scored in the eighth round of the shootout to give the Nashville Predators a critical 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.
In the winning shootout goal, and the only conversion by either team, Evangelista faked a shot on the forehand before pulling it to the backhand and beating goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
The Predators came out of the gate hot, outshooting the Kings, 18-9 in the first period and taking a 2-0 lead. Filip Forsberg netted his 35th goal of the season from an odd angle and Zach L'Heureux scored on the backhand.
L'Heureux had a goal disallowed in the first minute of the game as it was ruled that he had knocked down a Ryan O'Reilly feed with a high stick.
In the early second period, Jonathan Marchessault put away a Matthew Wood rebound to make it 3-0. Adrian Kempe scored four minutes later to get the Kings on the board, but Steven Stamkos responded with his 37th of the year.
Nashville was in a comfortable place up 4-1 halfway through the second period. However, it allowed three unanswered goals, two in the second and one in the third, allowing the Kings to force the game to overtime.
This was the 30th time the Kings have gone to overtime this season and 19th overtime loss, both of which are NHL records.
Nashville generated just two shots on net to LA's one in overtime. In the shootout, O'Reilly, Forsberg, Stamkos, Marchessault, Erik Haula, Tyson Jost and Roman Josi all missed on their attempts before Evangelsita scored.
Despite the Predators picking up the extra point, they are still not in the Wild Card position. San Jose also has 79 points but has played one fewer game than the Predators, giving it the tiebreaker.
Nashville does have the tiebreaker over the Kings in regulation wins.
Juuse Saros made 29 saves on 33 shots in the victory, shutting down every Kings shooter in the shootout.
This won't be the last time the Predators will see the Kings, as they will be back at Crypto.com Arena on Monday.
Nashville will face the Sharks next in San Jose on Saturday at 9 p.m. CST, a game that will break another tie in the Wild Card race.