ST. PAUL - The Wild got plenty of 5v5 chances and high danger looks but their defensive zone play is what cost them in tonight's loss against the Los Angeles Kings.
Last year the Wild allowed seven goals to the Los Angeles Kings in the second game of the year. This came after the 7-4 loss on home ice against the New York Rangers a couple of days prior.
Tonight the Wild allowed four goals in the first period which is exactly how they started last year against the Kings and it was Marc-Andre Fleury in the net both times.
It started after Jon Merrill tried to clear the puck to Connor Dewar along the wall, Drew Doughty sandwiched Dewar on the boards which squirted the puck free for Carl Grundstrom who made it 1-0.
Merrill and Dewar made up for the failed zone exit about four minutes later when he dumped a puck into the zone that bounced off the station and straight out in front for Dewar who fired home his second of the season.
Under two minutes later Mats Zuccarello sent a pass to the point for Jonas Brodin who rocketed a puck on the ice for a tip-in by Kirill Kaprizov who made it 2-1 Wild.
This was one of the best chances 5v5 the Wild had in the first two periods alone and they capitalized on an .588 expected goals chance. But they later allowed three unanswered goals by the Kings in the span of five minutes.
The second Kings goal came from Vladislav Gavrikov after Joel Eriksson Ek lost a faceoff to Anze Kopitar. Adrian Kempe and Gavrikov traded places on the faceoff which must've caused confusion for the Wild seeing a defenseman parked in front of the net.
Playing in his tenth career game and first of the year, Sammy Walker attempted to tie Gavrikov up in front of the slot but the 6-foot-3 defenseman spun around and backhanded a loose puck which beat Fleury, tying the game at 2-2.
So the first two goals the Wild gave up were a failed zone exit and a lost faceoff and just like that the game was tied. With under a minute left in the period, Jake Middleton went into the offensive zone to pinch along the boards so Dewar covered for him. Kevin Fiala, the former Wild forward, chipped a puck off the glass for Pierre-Luc Dubois who blew past Dewar and eventually scored.
The play was reviewed for a potential kick-in by Dubois but after review, the referees determined the puck was kicked to Dubois' stick which it deflected off of and passed Fleury.
Only 14 seconds later, Fleury tried to clear the puck along the boards and watched Fiala pick it off and fired a shot to the front. The shot was deflected onto the stick of Dubois who fired home his second of the game and third of the year.
Trevor Moore ended up scoring his fourth of the year making it 5-2 with around ten minutes left and Eriksson Ek scored with about five minutes left.
Kempe scored an empty net goal with 2:19 left making it 6-3 followed by another by the Kings to make it 7-3.
Analytics
Faber led the team in controlled zone exits with 11.
The Wild actually led the game in expected goals by almost one and in high-danger chances.
Kaprizov led the Wild in expected goals with 1.176.
Walker was tied with Johansson in zone entries.
All stats are tracked by Dylan Loucks.