ST. PAUL, Min.. -- On St. Patrick’s Day, the Minnesota Wild scored three straight goals to take down the Los Angeles Kings 3-1.
The Kings — riding a five-game win streak and seven straight shutout periods of hockey — struck first in the matchup, with the team scoring on the powerplay five minutes into the game. Winger Kevin Fiala flung a pass across the ice in between the Wild’s box formation right onto the tape of Fiala, who shot it over the glove of Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson. After the game, Kempe talked about the improvement of the powerplay as of late.
“It’s been better, I think,” Kempe said. “Starting to see that we [are] a little bit more connected, trying to shoot the puck a little bit more… we could’ve had a couple more [powerplay goals] tonight too, but yeah, some positives out of the powerplay for sure.”
With this being the only goal for the Kings, it ended center Quinton Byfield’s six-game goal streak.
Minnesota tied the game nearly two minutes into the second period on a powerplay of their own. Off a faceoff win, defenseman Jared Spurgeon took a wrist shot from the point that center Ryan Hartman deflected in front of the goal.
The Wild put in the ultimate game-winning goal on the powerplay during the third period with just under five minutes showing on the clock. This time, in a settled scenario, winger Matt Boldy threw a pass from behind the net across to winger Mats Zuccarello on the opposite circle, who stepped in and fired a shot past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Minnesota’s final goal to make the score 3-1 came from winger Marcus Johansson on an empty net.
After the game, head coach Jim Hiller talked about the difference maker that was scored late in regulation to tip the scales in Minnesota’s favor.
“There’s two things: somebody making a mistake… and somebody has to make a play,” Hiller said.
Lately, the Kings have had numerous problems with the volume of penalty minutes, and this was one of the few games where a team truly punished them. Against the New York Islanders, Los Angeles killed off an absurd 16 minutes of penalties. Though not nearly as many, the Kings still had six penalty minutes in the game. After the game, Kempe talked about the rising number of penalty minutes late this season.
“We can do a better job,” Kempe said, referring to the number of penalties the team has given up lately. “[The penalty kill] has been so good all year, it’s something we rely on every game.”
On the other side, after their powerplay goal today, it seems that the Kings have figured some things out on the powerplay, begging the question of where things changed this year. The clear difference would be the new face since the trade deadline: winger Andrei Kuzmenko. Though he has yet to put up a point in a Kings jersey, his presence changed the dynamic of the Kings' man-up offense, with the capability of Kuzmenko facilitating from the goal line or driving to the bumper position in front of the cage.
The question isn’t necessarily when he will tally his first point as a member of his new organization, but whence he does, how many will he garner before the seasons end. It seems he does the right things but never ends up on the stat sheet.
The Kings will move on to play against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday at the United Center at 5:30 p.m.