In Los Angeles, the Kings got off to a quick start on a power play goal from Viktor Arvidsson in the first period.
The Minnesota Wild responded with three goals for a 3-1 lead and eventually defeated the Kings, 3-2, on Saturday night.
The Wild have two road games to start the season.
“Starting on the road helps,” Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman (goal) said. “Traveling on the plane or going to dinner, you’re around each other every day as opposed to going to the rink and going home to your family. Definitely excited to get back home though, but we got four points, and that was our goal.”
Cam Talbot made 29 saves in the win.
Anze Kopitar scored his fourth of the season in the third period to pull LA within 3-2.
“This was a grinding game,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “It was in the trenches, it was heavy, it was in the paint, along the board, face-off circle. I thought there were moments or fractions of the game where we had some momentum, and there were other times when they did.”
Hartman, Frederick Gaudreau, and Victor Rask all scored in a three-goal outburst from the Wild in the middle frame.
“If we could go back and take a goal out of the game, that’s the one that I would pick,” McLellan said. “The others, we made some mistakes, yes. Coverage mistakes, but those are gonna happen. To me, that was a little bit of game management [breakdown] in that situation, and we’ve been stressing that for a month and a bit already.”
Jonathan Quick made 27 saves in the loss..
“I think today was kind of a streaky game,” LA’s Matt Roy said. “I think, moving forward, we’ve just got to keep getting pucks to the net and keep getting bodies to the net and I think good things will happen just like the other night.”
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