The Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings faced off for the first time of the season on Monday evening, Oct. 13, in St. Paul, Minnesota, at Grand Casino Arena. It was the first of three meetings, with the next two coming up in January in Los Angeles. The Wild made some lineup changes after their loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Oct. 11. They took Hunter Haight out of the lineup and brought Danila Yurov in for his NHL debut. The Kings were also coming off a Saturday loss; they fell to the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2, on the road.
Related: 3 Takeaways From Wild’s 7-4 Loss to the Blue Jackets
Jesper Wallstedt made his season debut in net for the Wild, while a former Wild goaltender, Darcy Kuemper, was in net for the Kings. The Wild remained without Mats Zuccarello and Nico Sturm while Corey Perry and Kyle Burroughs were out for the Kings. The game started in favor of the Wild as they got an early lead, and the Kings tried to fight back and tied it. They went to overtime and a shootout to get a winner, which was the Wild 4-3. This gave the Wild a record of 2-1-0 and the Kings a 1-2-1.
Game Recap
Both teams had a bit more jump in their step now that they had a few games under their belts. The Wild scored first on a power play goal from their captain, Jared Spurgeon, that gave his team the 1-0 lead. He was assisted by Marcus Johansson and Marco Rossi. That was just the beginning of the scoring for the Wild, as they added two more on the power play before the period ended.
The first was scored by Kirill Kaprizov, and he was assisted by Zeev Buium and Vladimir Tarasenko, which made it 2-0. The second goal was scored 20 seconds later by Matt Boldy, and he was assisted by Tarasenko and Joel Eriksson Ek to make it 3-0. Those were the only goals of the period, and the Wild took the lead into the second.
The second period saw a few chances for both sides, but the goaltenders stood tall and no goals made it through. The Wild took the 3-0 lead into the final period. The Kings got on the scoreboard in the early minutes of the third off a goal by Kevin Fiala. He was assisted by Joel Armia and Brandt Clarke to make it 3-1.
The Kings scored on the power play a short time later on a goal by Quinton Byfield. He was assisted by Adrian Kempe and Anže Kopitar to make it 3-2. Kempe scored late in the period on a 6-on-5 to tie the game 3-3. He was assisted by Byfield and Drew Doughty. That would be the final goal of the period, and they went to overtime. That wasn’t enough, so a shootout was required to determine the winner, which was the Wild 4-3. Rossi was the lone goal scorer in the shootout for both teams.
The Wild won’t have much time to take in this…as they’ll head right on the road to face the Dallas Stars in the second half of this back-to-back on Tuesday, Oct. 14. The Kings, on the other hand will have a few days before their next game which will be at home on Thursday, Oct. 16, against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
