In Los Angeles, Cam Talbot made 40 saves on Friday night and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Kings, 4-2.
The win moves the Wild within three points of the second place Colorado Avalanche in the West.
“I think we’re doing the right things,” Minnesota’s Nick Bonino said. “We’ve talked a lot about how our defensive zone has gotten better. It seems like a lot of their best chances are off the rush or off of broken plays. I think guys have bought in. We’re getting scoring from everyone, from the power play. We’re killing penalties. Goaltending is great, obviously. So it’s been a good six games here.”
Trevor Moore and Anze Kopitar were the Kings scorers.
Kopitar made the score 3-2 at 15:17 in the third period to make the last few minutes of the game a little more anxious for the Wild.
Kirill Kaprizov struck for two goals for Minnesota.
“I know I’m biased, but he’s putting together a Calder (Trophy) season,” Bonino said. “I think he’s got the most goals and points (among rookies), and he’s obviously a threat every time he’s on the ice. His goals are pretty amazing. That first goal, pretty fun to watch.”
The Wild improved to 30-13-3.
Nico Sturm scored in the third period to make the score 3-1 just ahead of Kopitar’s strike.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t bury a couple more,” LA’s Gabriel Vilardi said. “I thought we had some really good chances and good looks out there. Yeah, it’s just one game. We’ve got to keep going. We play tomorrow (against Arizona), big game.”
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek popped in an empty-net to end the suspense. 
Calvin Petersen made 20 saves in the loss.
“We played a pretty good 60 minutes,” Los Angeles’ Adrian Kempe said. “They’re a good team, they are going to have their chances and they have shown all year that they are very hard to play against. … They don’t give up a lot, but we tried our best and had some good looks, had a couple tough bounces.”
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