Los Angeles Kings defeat Minnesota Wild in shootout
Michal Handzus scored the winning penalty shot to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.
How it happened
The Minnesota Wild got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period off two quick goals. John Madden scored his second of the season at 5:52, and Nick Schultz scored his first of the season less than two
minutes later.
Los Angeles then pulled one back late in the first, on the power play, when Jarret Stoll fired a perfect shot past Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom.
The Kings tied it up with only 18 seconds on the clock in the second period, again on the power play, when Anze Kopitar got his third of the season.
After no scoring in the third or the overtime period the game then turned to the shootout. The score was still tied after the first three shooters for each team. It was Los Angeles' fifth shooter, Handzus,
who broke the deadlock which meant that Antti Miettinen needed to score, but Kings goalie Jonathan Quick came up with the save.
What they're saying
The Kings came out flat but managed to come back and get the win and they admitted that they will take a win any way that they can get one.
"The start wasn't the best there," Kopitar said. "But it doesn't matter … two points are two points at the end of the day. Too bad it came in a shootout and not in regulation, but whatever it is, we'll
take the two points."
After leading 2-0 it was Minnesota's undisciplined play and penalty killing which proved to be their undoing.
"We took too many penalties and it was a theme of the short season so far. Even if a team doesn't score, they're able to get momentum on it," Madden said. "Timing's everything and we get a five-minute
power play and go up 3-1, it's a different hockey game."
"They put us on our heels," Minnesota coach Todd Richards said. "The first two penalty kills, I thought we did a pretty good job as far as killing the power-play opportunities. But you can't keep giving
a good team opportunities."
The Kings have now won five of their last six games and are just a single point behind the Nashville Predators atop the Western Conference standings. They travel to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on
Wednesday 27 October.
The Minnesota Wild next play host to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
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