Cruising with a 3-0 lead late in the first period, the Wild appeared to put the Los Angeles Kings away early when Ryan Hartman swept in a rebound with 3 minutes, 7 seconds left for a 4-0 lead.
The horn sounded, and Hartman raised his arms. But before the Wild center could get to bench for his high-fives, on-ice officials waved off the goal on goaltender interference. Hartman was engaged with Quinton Byfield and fell into Darcy Kuemper, impeding the goaltender’s ability to chase the puck.
The contact was incidental, but that disallowed goal loomed large as the Kings rallied to tie the game with three third-period goals to send the game to overtime.
But Jesper Wallstedt, making his first NHL start since Dec. 21, 2024, stopped all four of the Kings’ shootout shots, and the Wild survived long enough to win it, 4-3, on Marco Rossi’s shootout goal. Wallstedt stopped Andrei Kuzmenko to seal the victory.
It looked like the Wild’s game early. In the space of 2 minutes 29 seconds, Jared Spurgeon, Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy scored power-play goals as Minnesota raced to a 3-0 lead.
Kaprizov and Boldy each scored their third goal in three games, and goaltender Jesper Wallstedt made 31 saves in his first NHL game since Dec. 21, 2024. But the Wild haven’t scored an even-strength goal since their 5-0, season-opening win at St. Louis on Oct. 10 and appeared to run out of gas as the Kings pinned them in their own end for most of the third period.
Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield each scored early in the third period, the latter on a power-play goal, as the Kings made it a one-goal game late. With Kuemper pulled for an extra attacker, Adrian Kempe scored on a long rebound with 45 seconds left in regulation to tie it 3-3.
The Wild put a franchise-best 52 shots on goal against the Blue Jackets on Saturday but had only two shots on goal until they set up camp in the Kings’ zone late in the first period, helped immensely by three minor penalties on Los Angeles in less than three minutes.
Spurgeon and Kaprizov scored on wrist shots through traffic, Kaprizov’s on a 5-on-3 advantage after Adrian Kempe hooked him near the beginning of another man advantage that made it 2-0 at 16:13.
Twenty seconds later, Boldy threw a puck at Kings goaltender Kuemper from behind the net. It caromed off Keumper’s left leg and over the goal line for a 3-0 lead.
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