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The Los Angeles Kings picked up their first win of the season last night, defeating the Minnesota Wild 7-6.
Sean Durzi came back into the lineup, as Sean Walker was a healthy scratch and Brandt Clarke retained his spot. Viktor Arvidsson also returned to the lineup after missing the game against the Seattle Kraken with an illness and Carl Grundstrom was scratched. Cal Petersen got his first start of the season.
It also marked Kevin Fiala's first game against his former team, following the offseason trade.
The Kings opened the scoring on a rush under five minutes into the game, when Kevin Fiala found Adrian Kempe with a nice cross-zone pass, and Kempe roofed a shot over Marc-Andre Fleury. Then just a few minutes later, Quinton Byfield took the puck off Ryan Hartman in his own end and got it to Alex Iafallo, who found Gabriel Vilardi in front for the Kings to go up by two. Only a couple minutes after that, Drew Doughty took a pass from Anze Kopitar on a power play and ripped a one-timer past Fleury, making it 3-0 Kings only a little more than halfway through the period.
The Wild got on the board shortly after though, with Jacob Middleton’s point shot getting deflected past Cal Petersen through traffic. Then later, Marcus Foligno took a pass out front and managed to score while falling to the ice, cutting the lead to a single goal. Before the end of the frame though, Alex Iafallo just let a shot go from the point and beat Fleury cleanly (on what was a pretty disastrous goal to give up) and Los Angeles still took a 4-2 lead into the intermission, after a high-scoring opening frame.
Minnesota managed to cut the lead back to one on a power play early in the second period, as Kirill Kaprizov found Joel Eriksson Ek at the side of the net for a tap-in goal. A few minutes later though, the Kings capitalized on a power play of their own, with Kevin Fiala roofing a shot past Filip Gustavsson, who was replacing Fleury in net. On another Wild power play only a few minutes after that though, Mats Zuccarello found Kaprizov with a great pass in front and he beat Petersen to make it a 5-4 game. The back and forth continued right after though, as Matt Roy was able to get a shot through traffic to beat Gustavsson only a minute later, for Los Angeles to take a 6-4 lead into intermission.
Early in the third period, the Wild cut the lead down once again, with Zuccarello putting a shot through traffic for yet another power play goal. Then under two minutes later, Petersen mishandled the puck behind his own net and while the initial chance was stopped, Sam Steel was there to bury the rebound, tying the game 6-6.
Once again though, the Kings answered and just 31 seconds later, Kempe took a nice pass in the slot from Kopitar and beat Gustavsson, giving Los Angeles the lead once again. Minnesota managed to throw a lot of shots on net for the rest of the period in an attempt to tie it, but the Kings hung on for their first win of the season.
Given that one of the most concerning parts about the Kings’ first two losses was their inability to create offense, it was a big positive for them to score as many goals as they did yesterday. Just about every line was chipping in and generating chances.
Kevin Fiala also had his best game so far, with it coming against his former team. He registered a goal and three assists, while Kempe and Kopitar were great as well.
The Kings did give up six power play chances to the Wild and went just 3-for-6 on the penalty kill, though. The team is still taking far too many minor penalties and over three games, they’ve given up 17 power play opportunities altogether.
Despite the back and forth nature of the game and the fact that the Kings allowed the Wild to come back and tie it, it was important to see the Kings being able to keep up offensively in a high-scoring game. After two losses at home to start the year, it was a really important game for Los Angeles to win, in order to get back on track.
The Kings’ next game comes tomorrow against the Detroit Red Wings, as they try to get to a .500 record.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Kings announce opening night roster
Late goal sinks Kings in opening night loss to Golden Knights
Brandt Clarke makes NHL debut in Kings' 4-1 loss to Kraken 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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