Kings lose, but they’re spirited

This was a game the Kings could have won, a game in which they limited their opponent’s shots, hit everything in sight, and got the kind of goaltending from Erik Ersberg that will, down the road, win them many games.

Although they have played with such poise lately and competed so well, they lost their grip in the final minutes Saturday against the Nashville Predators and lost the game, 3-1, ending their winning streak at four games.

With Drew Doughty in the penalty box after hooking Nashville’s Martin Erat to stop a sure scoring chance, J.P. Dumont took a pass from Jason Arnott and beat Ersberg from close range with 2:28 to play.

Shea Weber was credited with Nashville’s final goal with 47.7 seconds left. Dustin Brown inadvertently shot it into his own empty net after he passed the puck out to the blue line and no teammate could reach it.

The atmosphere at Staples Center was subdued and the crowd was smaller than the announced 14,135. The wildfires blazing around Southern California undoubtedly weighed on fans’ minds, putting a hockey game into perspective.

The Predators had scored first, at 10:26 of the second period. Erat made it possible with a perfectly timed long pass to Dumont, who had gotten behind Kings defenseman Matt Greene. Dumont slid the puck to his right to Arnott, who was alone in front of the net when he beat Ersberg for his eighth goal.

The Kings pulled even at 15:06. After Patrick O’Sullivan took Nashville’s Jordin Tootoo out of the play on a clean check into the boards, Peter Harrold picked up a loose puck. He passed it back to the left point to Kyle Quincey, whose shot was deflected by Michal Handzus off to Ellis’ right.

The Kings’ reaction to this defeat will provide a good read of their maturity and resilience.

They outshot Nashville, 34-22, and have outshot opponents in 12 of 16 games this season. They’ve held opponents under 30 shots for the last eight straight.

It’s also significant that they were competitive against a team that finished well ahead of them last season and took the eventual champion Detroit Red Wings to six games in the first round of the playoffs.

That should keep their confidence strong, just as their sweep of a home-and-home series against Dallas last week indicated how far they have come.

A year ago, the Kings might have lost one or both of those games to the Stars. Instead, they prevailed in the fifth round of the shootout at home Tuesday and held on for another one-goal victory Thursday at Dallas by protecting that lead for the final 5:17.

Fans know there’s a difference between the team that so often quit last season and this team. Coach Terry Murray wasn’t behind the bench a year ago but senses the difference too.

“I can understand,” he said of fans’ perception that this team has won or competed admirably in many games that it wouldn’t have had a chance in last season.

“I think we’ve all gone through that. I saw that the last couple of years in Philadelphia. We had a tough time closing games down at times, and even in the beginning of this year we had some games where we couldn’t shut it down.

“So yeah, I have a sense of what they’re talking about and how frustrating it is. It’s hard if you see it on a consistent basis.”

Another change from last season under then-coach Marc Crawford is that players aren’t reamed out when they make mistakes. That’s vital with a young team, which could become easily discouraged by constant criticism and tuned Crawford out because of his nonstop ripping.

The other key difference, at least recently, is the steady play of Ersberg. Murray said before the game that he would not hesitate to give the Swedish goalie a seventh consecutive start when the Kings face the Ducks today at Anaheim.

Murray even put a positive spin on his debatable designation of Jason LaBarbera as the starter for the first 10 games, saying that it gave Ersberg time to recover from a virus that had weakened him during training camp.

“Ersberg has really taken advantage of his opportunity to play, so playing LaBarbera at the start of the season, being our No. 1 goalie, in hindsight it was a good thing for him,” Murray said.

“It let him get his strength back and get some practice time in and get hungry and kind of a little desperate to show us whenever he did get the opportunity.”

He and his teammates have shown a good mix of desperation and determination most of the season. They fell short Saturday but not by much. That could be the story of this season and it’s theirs to be written.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com