Kings can’t hold off Wild as 5-game win streak ends
ST. PAUL, Minn. — On a night when Darcy Kuemper was not quite as impenetrable as he has been of late, the Kings needed more out of their offense.
Mats Zuccarello scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 4:38 left and the Minnesota Wild beat the Kings, 3-1, on Monday night, ending the Kings’ five-game winning streak and Kuemper’s shutout streak of 175-plus minutes.
Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, Marcus Johansson (empty net) also scored, and Jared Spurgeon had two assists for Minnesota (38-25-5, 81 points), which had lost four of previous five games. Filip Gustavsson finished with 28 saves.
Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings (36-21-9, 81 points), who remained one point behind Edmonton for second place in Pacific Division with a game in hand on the Oilers. Darcy Kuemper – coming off shutouts in his previous two starts – had 19 saves.
Zuccarello got a pass from Matt Boldy in the left circle, settled the puck and fired it past Kuemper with Marco Rossi screening the goalie to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. It was hist 100th goal since signing with the Wild in 2019.
Both teams relied on the power play to get on the board, and neither team needed much time with the man advantage.
Zuccarello’s 16th goal of the season came just 34 seconds after Trevor Moore was called for a tripping penalty. He scored from the left faceoff circle, beating Keumper on the short side.
Kempe put the Kings on top 4:59 into the opening period, just 17 seconds after Marco Rossi went to the box for slashing Fiala. On the power play, Fiala found a seam through the Wild’s penalty kill unit to feed an open Kempe for his team-best 28th goal of the season.
The power-play goal was just the fourth for the Kings in their last 11 games. However, the visitors, who had converted just three of their last 23 opportunities, squandered their next three power plays.
The Kings had a couple of opportunities to double their lead. Alex Laferriere had four chances in a nine-second span seven minutes after Kempe’s score. Gustavsson stopped three, and Jon Merrill swept the puck off the goal line on the other.
Warren Foegele thought he had scored in the first minute of the second period, but officials immediately waived it off ruling Brandt Clarke took Gustavsson out of the crease.
Hartman tied the score with 18:09 left in the second period, just four seconds after Kings defenseman Drew Doughty went off for cross-checking. Hartman won the ensuing faceoff with the puck going back to Spurgeon, whose point shot was deflected by Hartman in the air past Kuemper. That ended the goalie’s shutout streak at 176:06.
Gustavsson made a stellar save to snare Doughty’s one timer from center point through traffic 2:05 into the third period to keep the score tied at 1-1.
Johansson added an empty-netter with 56 seconds left to seal the win.
The Kings dropped to 25-7-4 when scoring first.
Minnesota has a firm grip on the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference and pulled four points behind third-place Colorado in the Central Division.
The Wild were 2 for 3 on the power play after coming in 2 for 6 over the previous three games.
UP NEXT
The Kings play at Chicago on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PT to finish a two-game trip.