Andrei Kuzmenko leads Kings to win, but Anze Kopitar is injured
Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist, and the Kings held on to beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 on Monday night.
Warren Foegele, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe also scored, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 33 shots for the Kings, who beat the Wild for the second time in three nights and got just their fourth win in 12 games (4-6-2).
Jared Spurgeon had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Hartman also scored for Minnesota, which snapped a six-game point streak (3-0-3). and Filip Gustavsson had 29 saves.
The Wild are 3-1-2 on a seven-game road trip that ends Thursday at Seattle. They also lost at Los Angeles 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday night.
Kings center Anze Kopitar left the game after playing 4:54 in the first period. The Kings later ruled him out for the rest of the game because of a lower-body injury.
The Kings had 16-8 advantage on shots on goal in the second period and scored twice to take a 2-0 lead. Minnesota had two power plays in the period, but managed just one shot during the advantages.
Foegele gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a long shot from just inside the blue line with 4:26 left in the second period.
Fiala doubled the Kings’ lead with 2:08 to go in the middle period. Kuzmenko’s pass deflected off Fiala’s skate on the left doorstep and past Gustavsson for Fiala’s 15th of the season.
Spurgeon got the Wild on the scoreboard at 5:55 of the third period with a shot from the left point through traffic to spoiled Kuemper’s bid for his third shutout of the season.
Kuzmenko restored the Kings’ two-goal lead at 9:20 as he skated with the puck from the left side across the front of the net and put the puck past Gustavsson from the right side.
Hartman pulled the Wild to 3-2 with a power-play goal with 4:39 remaining, but Kempe sealed the Kings’ win with an empty-netter three minutes later..
Up next for the Kings: vs. San Jose on Wednesday night to finish a four-game homestand.
