The Kings were in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday night to face the Wild in the first of what will be a quick two-game road trip. Entering the night on a five-game winning streak, the Kings streak came to an end after a 3-1 defeat in the State of Hockey.
The Kings kicked off the scoring early in the game and did so on the power play. After a slashing minor by Marco Rossi on Kevin Fiala was called 4:42 into the game, the Kings struck on the man advantage just 17 seconds in. The duo of Fiala and Adrian Kempe, who have both had great success against the Wild as of late teamed up again for the Kings early and lone goal of the game. Fiala found Kempe with a pass through the slot and the Kings’ leading goalscorer one-timed a shot short-side, glove-side high for his 28th goal of the season. Fiala’s helper was his 11th point (3-8=11) in nine games against the Wild since joining the Kings, while Kempe’s goal was his 12th point (6-6=12) in his last 10 games against the Wild. After 20 minutes of play the Kings led 1-0.
The Wild evened the score 1:51 into the middle stanza and that too came on the power play. Immediately after winning the draw on the power play, Wild captain Jared Spurgeon ripped a shot from the point and Ryan Hartman deflected the shot on its way towards the net, ultimately beating Darcy Kuemper on the glove side just four seconds into the man advantage. No offense was present the rest of the period and the Kings held a 21-14 shot advantage entering the final 20 minutes of regulation.
On a night where all four goals came outside of 5-on-5 play, it was the Wild who found the edge with less than five minute to play in the game. Netting the eventual game-winning goal on their third and final power play opportunity, the Wild were able to break the Kings defensive zone press with multiple rims around the boards, eventually finding an open Mats Zuccarello on the weakside of the slot. Zuccarello beat Kuemper with a wrist shot through his blocker and body giving the Wild their only lead of the game. Following a pulled Kuemper to make it a 6-on-5 in the final two-plus minutes of regulation, the Wild’s Marcus Johansson found the Kings empty net from his own goal line in the game’s final minute to make it 3-1.
After the early Kings power play goal, they finished the night 1-for-4, while the Wild went 2-for-3 on the man advantage.
After posting back-to-back shutouts to end last week, Darcy Kuemper’s shutout steak came to an end after 2 hours, 17 minutes and 34 seconds when he surrendered the early second period goal. Kuemper stopped 19 of 21 shots on the night.
