Kempe has goal, assist, lifts Kings past Wild for 5th straight win

LOS ANGELES -- Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist for the Los Angeles Kings in their fifth straight win, 4-1 against the Minnesota Wild at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

Trevor Moore scored two empty-net goals for the Kings (16-8-3). Darcy Kuemper made 22 saves in his first start since Nov. 13 after missing seven games with a lower-body injury.

“We like the challenge of playing against top teams,” Kuemper said. “You know you have to be at your best. You need everybody, so those are fun as a group, and good measuring sticks. We consider ourselves a top team, so when we play against those teams, we feel like we've got a lot of prove. And I think we did a great job with it.”

Yakov Trenin scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves for the Wild (18-5-4), who had won five in a row and were coming off a 5-1 victory at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

“I thought we competed hard and definitely had our fair share of chances,” Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian said. “We compete right through to the very end, so I think in the long run that will pay off for us, knowing that no matter what we’re going to compete right to the end of the game.”

Kempe gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead at 19:17 of the first period, putting the puck in with his skate at the top of the crease after Fleury made a kick save on Anze Kopitar’s shot from the top of the right circle.

Alex Laferriere made it 2-0 at 8:33 of the second period with a wrist shot from the left circle on the power play. It was the forward's 12th goal in 27 games this season, matching his total in 81 games as a rookie in 2023-24.

“There’s no secret that some of our players haven’t scored as much as they’re used to, as much as they expected and we expected,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “So, somebody has to fill the void, and ‘Laf’ has done that for us.”

Kings forward Phillip Danault made two effort plays to keep the puck in the zone before screening Fleury on Laferriere’s third goal in the past four games.

“To set the whole thing up, Phil made an unbelievable screen there,” Laferriere said. “We talked kind of right before the face-off on where he thought that I walked to shoot, and I told him far side. It’s hard to beat goalies clean in the NHL, and especially goalies of that caliber.”

Moore pushed it to 3-0 at 18:06 of the third period with his first into an empty net.

Trenin answered with a one-timer from below the left circle off Jon Merrill’s pass off the end boards to cut it to 3-1 at 18:47, but Moore got his second goal at 18:55 for the 4-1 final.

“I think that we had the push in the third, [but] we didn’t capitalize,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “We capitalized late, but we had other opportunities to be able to do it. … We just didn’t get rewarded for the effort we put in in the third.”

Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov had his three-game goal streak and five-game point streak end, and the first line of Kaprizov, Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy was a combined minus-9.

“They definitely have dangerous players,” Kuemper said. “If you try to defend them 1-on-1, it’s pretty hard on guys, so I think we did a great job of working together, having layers and support on top players like him (Kaprizov). We’ve been doing a good job of it all year. There’s a lot of good players in this league, and obviously he’s at the very tippy top.”

NOTES: Kopitar played his 1,400th NHL game and 700th home game. He is the 11th NHL player to play in 1,400 games for one team. He also got his 815th assist, passing Gilbert Perreault for 31st in NHL history.