LOS ANGELES – Adrian Kempe and Brandt Clarke scored in a shootout as the Los Angeles Kings overcame a quartet of rallies by the Minnesota Wild to win 5-4 on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.

The Wild answered four times when the Kings took the lead, forcing overtime on goals by Jake Middleton, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Faber and Matt Boldy, but they fell to 3-0-2 on their current road trip. Jesper Wallstedt, making his 17th start of the season, had 34 saves in the loss.

Faber was whistled for high sticking late in the overtime, forcing the Wild to kill 92 seconds of 4-on-3 man advantage in the extra session. Los Angeles out-shot Minnesota 6-3 in overtime.

In a recent rarity, the Wild found themselves playing from behind early in the opening period, when Kempe was uncovered at the right of the Minnesota net, and slapped home a pass that Anze Kopitar sent from below the goal line.

The deficit was short-lived as Middleton snapped a shot past the Kings netminder after a setup pass from Mats Zuccarello. It was Middleton’s birthday week present to himself, after he had turned 30 a day earlier.

The other factor in the first was Wallstedt and the help he got from his defenders, as Los Angeles buzzed in the offensive zone for much of the period.

The Kings killed one penalty and part of another in the middle frame as the Wild made an offensive push, which included an unsuccessful Kirill Kaprizov breakaway with seven minutes to play in the period. Wallstedt stopped a breakaway with just under five minutes left in the period, but the Kings got a power play in the process and scored on the man advantage to re-take the lead.

The Wild tied it up again just 90 seconds later when Eriksson Ek caught a long lead pass from Quinn Hughes and put a low shot past Darcy Kuemper on the power play.

Los Angeles took the lead for a third time early in the third on a broken play where the initial shot went wide of the net, but the puck caromed off the end boards and into the Minnesota crease. With both teams scrambling to do something with the loose puck, it ended up over the goal line, forcing the visitors to play from behind again.

And again, the Wild answered, with Faber capping a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play with Kaprizov and Danila Yurov.

But Fiala’s cross-ice pass got Wallstedt moving laterally just enough to open a gap between his knees, and Helenius hit that spot for his first goal of the season. And it was still not enough, as a puck shot by Faber went off Boldy with 2:57 left in regulation, knotting things at 4-4.

Kuemper, who began his career in Minnesota, had 24 saves for the Kings.

The Wild will stay in Los Angeles for game six of their seven-game road trip, facing the Kings again on Monday night, with the first faceoff at 9:30 p.m. CT.

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The St. Thomas men’s hockey team improved to 11-7-3 on the season after completing a sweep of Ferris State in a weekend series at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena.

Saturday’s 8-4 victory came far easier than Friday’s come from behind 5-3 triumph, though the Tommies trailed 2-0 in both contests.

Ferris State’s edge on Saturday didn’t last nearly as long as it did on Friday. The Bulldogs opened the second game of the series with goals at 4:39 and 11:34 of the opening period before St. Thomas proceeded to light the lamp eight consecutive times to wrest control of the weekend away from the visitors.

The Tommies exploded for four goals in just over six minutes to take a 4-2 edge into the first intermission. Jake Bracchini began the onslaught with a power-play goal at 13:22 before Hayes Hundley made it 2-2 at 17:53.

But the hosts weren’t done there. Lucas Wahlin put UST up 3-2 38 seconds later before Attila Lippai finished off the period with a goal at 19:49 to make the score 4-2 at the break.

The second period was all Tommies, with Nick Williams, Alex Gaffney and Nathan Pilling all getting in on the scoring along with Bracchini’s second of the game. The rout was on at 8-2 heading into the third.

Ferris State got two back in the concluding interval, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the contest ended in a four-goal difference favoring St. Thomas as goaltender William Ingemann made 15 saves. Lucas Van Vliet led the hosts with three assists, with Chase Cheslock, Gaffney and Braccini each earning two assists apiece.

Friday: Tommies 5, Bulldogs 3

St. Thomas opened the series by rallying from third period deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to win 5-3.

Ferris St. led 2-0 following the final intermission on the strength of single tallies in the first and second period.

That all changed in the third as Braccini and Mason Poolman scored at 15:20 and 12:43 of the period, respectively, to pull the hosts even at 2-2.

That didn’t last long, however, as the Bulldogs again seized the lead at 3-2 on a goal just 26 seconds after Poolman’s score.

But Luc Laylin drew UST level with a goal at 4:28 or the third before Hundley gave the Tommies the lead at last with just 41 seconds remaining in regulation. Pilling added one final goal 15 seconds later on an empty netter after the Bulldogs had pulled goaltender Hobie Hedquist in favor of the added skater.

Tommies netminder Carsen Musser made 21 saves in the game. Gaffney and Van Vliet led the team with two assists apiece.

Next up

St. Thomas has just one game on its slate next weekend, a trip to Mankato to take on Minnesota State. The Tommies and Mavericks drop the puck at 6:07 p.m. Saturday in a game televised on CCHATV.

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Abbey Murphy netted a hat trick along with four assists as the Minnesota women’s hockey team obliterated Sacred Heart 14-2 on Saturday afternoon in Fairfield, Conn. Teammate Nelli Laitinen also recorded three goals to go with two assists in the contest.

The Gophers (16-4) became more powerful as the game went on, scoring twice in the opening period and five more in the middle frame before scorching the net for seven goals in the final stanza of the lopsided affair.

Sacred Heart (5-14-1) did manage a scant amount of offense in the form of a lone tally in each of the second and third periods. Goaltenders Hannah Clark and Sophia Johnson split time in the Minnesota nets.

Thirteen Gophers in all managed at least one point in the game. Anabella Fanale logged two goals, while Jamie Nelson logged four assists and Josefin Bouveng had three assists. Six separate Minnesota players had one goal apiece, while four Gophers had two assists each.

Next up for Minnesota is a home-and-home series with Minnesota State next weekend, beginning with a trip to Mankato for a 6 p.m. Friday game. The teams will follow up with a Saturday contest at Ridder Arena at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be televised on BTN+.

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MIAMI (AP) — Anthony Edwards scored 33 points, Naz Reid had 20 of his 29 in the second half and the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Miami 125-115 on Saturday night and snap the Heat’s four-game winning streak.

Julius Randle finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, which outscored Miami 19-4 in the opening 4 1/2 minutes of the final quarter to turn a four-point lead into a 109-90 edge. Rudy Gobert added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves.

Norman Powell scored 21 for the Heat, who are 3-5 in their last eight home games. Davion Mitchell and Nikola Jovic added 14 for Miami, while Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins each had 12.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) looks for an opening past Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell (45) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Edwards had 20 points in the first half, making this the fourth game this season — and second in a row — where he had that many by intermission. The last time he had 20 by halftime in two straight games was Feb. 13-16, 2023.

The Heat saw Powell leave with 6:11 left in the first quarter with right leg soreness; he returned midway through the second quarter around the time Jaime Jaquez Jr. left after stepping on Randle’s foot while playing defense and spraining his right ankle.

Jaquez did not return.

Minnesota had dropped three of its last four games coming into Saturday, including perhaps the Timberwolves’ most frustrating loss of the season — a 126-102 defeat on Wednesday in Atlanta.

The Wolves responded well to the adversity with a renewed commitment to details from the opening tip Saturday.

“That was exactly what we needed against a really good team that’s been playing very well with a style of play that’s really hard to guard,” Wolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “I thought our gameplan discipline in the beginning of the game set the tone for us for the game. You could tell when that happens how mentally we’re ready to play and locked in and focused.”

Finch said Donte DiVincenzo set the tone on that front, citing his defensive work against Powell in the game’s opening minutes. Minnesota won DiVincenzo’s minutes by 24 points.

Naz Reid scored 29 points, burying four triples to go with two blocked shots off the bench.

“Naz was great. Kept finding space,” Finch said. “We did a good job of finding him, took advantage of mismatches, finished well in and around the paint. Played a really complete game out there, too. He was really good.”

The Wolves improved to 15-1 this season when holding opponents to 112 points or less. Minnesota shot 54%; the Heat fell to 2-8 when allowing opponents to shoot 50% or better.

Up next for the Wolves is a 5 p.m. tip-off Sunday evening at the Washington Wizards.

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