Gaborik, Kopitar drive Kings past Wild, 5-2

In Los Angeles Tuesday night, the Kings’ Marian Gaborik struck for two goals, including his 400th career goal, in a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.

From an historical perspective though, the 400th goal for Gaborik was also the 500th assist for Anze Kopitar.

“[Kopitar] has just been a horse all year, and [Gaborik] has worked so hard to come back and really wants to play and be a productive player. It’s kind of fitting that those two guys would partner up on a milestone like that,” LA head coach John Stevens said.

Kopitar had a three-point night with a goal and two assists.

“I don’t think the first two periods were very energetic. I think the whole building kind of felt that. But then, being down one going into the third, you kind of have to throw everything out there,” Kopitar said.,

It was a tale of two games with the first period being more of a snoozer than an up and down game; the second period improved with more back and forth action between the two clubs.

Adrian Kempe and Jake Muzzin also had strikes for the Kings.

Two of the goals were deflected in off Wild plyers.

“This one was really frustrating because it was a play that they didn’t do anything,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said of the Kempe goal. “This one, if we hadn’t touched the puck, it’s going into the corner.”

Tyler Ennis and Charlie Coyle had the Wild goals as they held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the second period.

“When they put their push on, we just didn’t do anything about it,” Boudreau said.

Following a miserable stretch of games, Jonathan Quick won his fifth straight start and made 19 saves for the win.

[WATCH: All Wild vs. Kings highlights]

Devan Dubnyk made 23 saves in taking the loss as the Wild dropped to 13-11-3.

“You don’t want to give them life or anything to feel good about. Two-on-1 from the far blue line, obviously, they made a nice play. They’re feeling good, the energy in the building is high, and they start coming back,” Dubnyk said after the tough loss.

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