Mats Zuccarello’s power-play goal with 4:38 left in the final period allowed the Minnesota Wild to snap the Los Angeles Kings’ five-game winning streak with a 3-1 come-from-behind victory on Monday in Saint Paul, Minn.
Ryan Hartman also scored for the Wild, who had lost four of their past five (1-3-1), and he assisted on Zuccarello’s game-winner. Marcus Johansson added an empty-netter in the final minute, and Jared Spurgeon notched two assists in the victory. Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson made 28 saves.
Adrian Kempe scored for Los Angeles, on assists from Kevin Fiala and Drew Doughty. Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves as he saw his four-game winning streak end.
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. Zuccarello scored from the left faceoff circle, beating Kuemper on the short side.
Kempe put the Kings on top with 15:01 left 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 past 11 games. However, Los Angeles, which had converted just three of its past 23 opportunities, would squander its next three power plays.
Los Angeles had a couple opportunities to double its 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.
The Kings’ Warren Foegele thought he had scored in the first minute of the second period, but officials immediately waved it off, ruling Brandt Clarke took Gustavsson out of the crease.
Hartman tied the game with 18:09 left in the second period, just four seconds after Doughty went off for cross-checking. Hartman won the ensuing faceoff with the puck going back to Spurgeon, whose shot was deflected by the forward.
–Field Level Media
