In St Paul, Cam Talbot made 27 saves to help the Minnesota Wild up end the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1, on Friday night.
The win was the fifth straight for the Wild, and it snapped the Kings win streak at six.
“To start, it took me a little bit to get my legs under me,” Talbot said. “But I think that’s going to happen anytime you take 23, 24 days off. The biggest thing for me was just trying not to rush back and just waiting until I thought I was ready, and that ended up being tonight. So just happy to be back out there with the guys and contribute and get a big win.”
Jeff Carter broke the shutout bid for Talbot with a goal coming with just over three minutes left in the game.
“We didn’t respond well after the first [goal],” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “[The Wild] earned it. They created an opportunity, they made a good play behind the net, and it was in. And life goes on. We haven’t had that feeling of falling behind in a long time, and I didn’t think we responded very well. We had a three-minute lapse … and it took us the rest of that period and pretty much all of the second period to stabilize within the game.”
Minnesota improved to 11-6-0.
All three Minnesota goals came in the first period.
In a span of 3:03, Kirill Kaprizov, Nick Bjugstad and Joel Eriksson Ek potted goals for all the offense Talbot and the Wild would need.
“I felt like all four lines, all the D-men, everyone was going. [Talbot], especially his first game back, he was definitely great for us tonight,” Bjugstad said. “I think having all four lines rolling, and it’s a lot of fun when you’re playing in their end and you’re creating chemistry. I feel like the last three, four games we really started to connect and play well with each other.”
LA dropped to 9-7-3.
“The last two periods had been better,” Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar said. “Still not up to our standards, but we stopped the bleeding, I guess, a little bit. Tomorrow’s a new 
game, and we’re going to have to be much better than we were tonight.”
Jonathan Quick made 27 saves in the loss.
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