Wild win fifth straight
The Minnesota Wild blitzed the Los Angeles Kings with three goals in a span of just over three minutes in the first period and held on to win 3-1 on Friday night for their fifth straight victory.
Kirill Kaprizov, Nick Bjugstad and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild, who ended the Kings’ six-game winning streak. Minnesota’s last loss was to the Kings in Los Angeles on Feb. 16. That was Minnesota’s first game back after a two-week layoff due to COVID-19 protocols.
Cam Talbot stopped 27 shots for the Wild, holding the Kings scoreless until Jeff Carter’s goal late in the third period in his first action since Feb. 2. Jonathan Quick made 27 saves for the Kings, who were done in by the Wild’s three goals in a 3:03 span.
Minnesota struck first on Kaprizov’s fifth of the year, a sprawling wraparound goal at 12:33.
Bjugstad doubled the Wild’s lead less than two minutes later after Quick misplayed a puck off the backboards. The carom rolled out to Bjugstad alone in the slot, and he buried a backhander for his 100th career goal.
Barely another minute had elapsed when Eriksson Ek slammed home his own rebound for his team-leading seventh of the season and a 3-0 Wild lead.
Carter spoiled the shutout when he crashed the net on a 3-on-2 and muscled the puck past Talbot for his fourth of the year.
The Wild were playing their first home game since Jan. 31. After their season resumed, they played five straight games on the road before returning home for a pair of games against the Kings.
The teams square off again in Minnesota tonight.
With a strike of chaos and a well-balanced score sheet Friday night, the Latin Academy boys basketball team is moving forward to the Boston City League tournament title game.
In true bits-and-pieces fashion, four Dragons (9-0) reached double-figures as part of a 61-46 win over Charlestown in a BCL tournament semifinal Friday, led by Mason Lawson’s fourthquarter takeover of 10 straight points to put the game away. The Townies had given Latin Academy trouble with a few runs, but a high-intensity defensive effort created a heap of issues — 27 turnovers-worth — too problematic for Charlestown to overcome.
Dragons head coach Dan Bunker looked up at the school’s banner with just one City Tournament championship (1993) after the game, and noted how huge it was for his team to respond to a five-point second quarter with 19 points and 18 points in the third and fourth, respectively, to push them to Saturday’s tourney final against New Mission at 4 p.m.
“I thought Charlestown did a good job … keeping those kids motivated and playing a tough defense,” he said. “We came out and did a good job turning our defense into offense, and we weren’t able to do that necessarily in the second quarter.”
While a full-court defensive effort forced Charlestown into 10 turnovers en route to a 19-9 lead in the first quarter, BLA struggled to carry that as Steven JeanLouis started bullying the inside to claw the Townies back in it. By halftime the game was tied at 24-24.
It didn’t take long for the Dragons to find their fire from there, though, starting the third quarter with a 7-2 run for some mojo. Jahmar Henry (seven points) hit a pair of shots to help Charlestown tie it up again, but a couple of long-awaited triples from Abdulahi Aden and a string of turnovers helped BLA to a 10-1 run and a 43-33 advantage.
Lawson (14 points, five rebounds, five assists) took over from there, all while Charlestown couldn’t get into a rhythm. Benny Martinez (11 points), Aden (10 points) and Osasu Woghiren (10 points) all joined Lawson in double-figures, but the 14 steals and 14 offensive rebounds the Dragons accrued were more telling.
Jean-Louis (11 points) was the Townies’ high-scorer, and Charlestown was held scoreless for three minutes twice.