In Los Angeles, the Kings failed to put any distance between themselves and the Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Monday night. 
The Wild took a 3-0 lead in the game on single strikes in each period.
Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves in the win.
“They ran us out of the building last time we were here, 6-0 last time [on March 20],” Gustavsson said. “We came here, we wanted to finish off strong, and we played good in San Jose [in a 6-2 win at the Sharks on Saturday]. We wanted to come here and win this game, and personally, like I said, finish off on a good note.”
Minnesota moved to 39-33-9.
Matt Boldy staked the Wild to a 1-0 lead at 14:14 of the opening stanza, scoring off the power play with a rush up ice.
“We played well from the start to the end,” Boldy said. “Pretty complete game.”
Ryan Hartman pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 19:55 of the middle frame, scoring off an odd man rush.
The Kings dropped to 43-27-11, they are only one point clear of Vegas for third in the Pacific Division.
“I don’t think it matters who we play,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “Obviously, anyone that’s making the postseason is a really good team. Whoever it is, we need to be ready to play, probably (with) a little more intensity than we had today if we want to have some success.”
In the third period, the Wild added a marker from Kirill Kaprizov at 8:25 for a 3-0 advantage, scoring his 45th goal of the campaign after a slow start to his season.
“Smart, really smart move,” Wild John Hynes said. “It’s really tough to defend. The goalie can’t defend it really. The only way to defend it is if it bounces the right way for the goalie.”
Blake Lizotte broke up the shutout bid at 14:36 of the third, scoring off a wrister for the 3-1 final count on the scoreboard.
“You can’t be taking steps back,” Anderson said. “We got to keep building ‘cause you don’t get any time after the year to build your game up. You’re jumping right into it, so just making sure we’re ready to go. We get one more try before we need to be ready.”
Cam Talbot made 262 saves in the loss.
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