Predators’ Dunham Stands Up to Kings

Some ties feel like victories, some like losses.

There are other times, however, when what you see is what you get.

Such was the case for the Kings on Tuesday night, when they played the Nashville Predators to a 1-1 draw in front of 13,691 in the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

The finale of the three-game trip didn’t elicit any long faces in the King locker room afterward, but neither was it anything to write home about.

The same could be said of the 1-1-1 trip, which also included a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues and a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

“It was all right,” Jason Allison said. “We came out of it .500.”

But in the race for the playoffs, the Kings are treading water. Despite four victories and four ties in their last 11 games, they’re no closer to getting back into the playoff race than they were 31/2 weeks ago.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Allison, who scored the Kings’ goal. “It’s frustrating for everybody. We have to break out soon. We’ve got to start putting some wins together here and start making up some ground.

“It seems like every night there’s something different. One night, you’ll have a bunch of scoring chances where you just can’t score. Another night, we’ll score a couple, but we’ll have a couple small breakdowns that cause goals.”

Tuesday was a night when they bombarded Predator goaltender Mike Dunham with 19 shots on goal in the second period ... and failed to score.

In fact, despite dominating the game’s middle 20 minutes, the Kings entered the third period trailing, 1-0, after defenseman Andy Delmore scored on a rebound for the Predators with 6:30 to play in the second.

“Credit Dunham (33 saves) with keeping us in there,” Delmore said of the only goaltender named so far to the U.S. Olympic team.

And credit Allison with pulling the Kings even in the third period.

With the Predators in the attacking zone, the puck popped out to Allison, who carried it the other way up the right side of the ice, teammate Mikko Eloranta filling the lane on the left side on a two-on-one breakaway.

From the top of the slot, with Eloranta bearing down on Dunham, Allison waited until the defender had fallen down and slid past before lifting a wrist shot that eluded the goaltender and landed in the net.

“I didn’t get all of the shot,” Allison said. “Someone hit my stick or something, but we had traffic going to the net and it got in.”

Or so he soon found out.

“I didn’t even see it,” he said. “I was off balance and I fell down.”

With 11:19 to play, the Kings had finally scored, avoiding what would have been their third shutout loss in five games.

“I think that’s pretty typical of what he does,” teammate Adam Deadmarsh said of Allison, whose unassisted goal gave him his 18th point in 21 games with the Kings. “He’s got good patience with the puck. That was a big goal for us.”

It helped the Kings extend their unbeaten streak in Nashville to six games. Since losing their first game in Music City on April 3, 1999, the Kings are 4-0-2.

The Predators also extended an unbeaten streak. Though they are winless in their last nine road games, including a 4-2 loss at Staples Center on Dec. 1, they are 6-0-2 at home since Oct. 30, having outscored their opponents, 28-12.

For the sixth consecutive game, the Kings did not give up a power-play goal.

They’ve killed 22 consecutive penalties during that stretch, two against the Predators, who failed even to put a shot on net during the manpower advantage.

On the other hand, the Kings went 0 for 4 on the power play.

And so it goes.

“It’s tough when you don’t have confidence as a team, when you’re not winning games,” Allison said.

“You can say what you want. It’s just a feeling you get when you’re winning games and you’ve been winning games. That feeling’s just natural when you get a lead or when you’re tied ... and you get that next goal to feel good about yourself and keep rolling.

“And when you’re not winning, you find ways to lose, it seems like. It’s tough some nights to find a win.”