Kings lose to Wild, could be a wild card
Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said after clinching a spot in the postseason that his team was still very much in a playoff race.
On Monday night the Kings missed the starter's pistol as the Minnestoa Wild blew past them 3-1 at Crypto.com Arena, snapping their eight-game win streak at home.
Monday's loss put the Kings in peril of dropping from third in the Pacific Division to the second wildcard position, which would pit them against the vaunted Dallas Stars. The Kings sat a solitary point ahead of the fourth-place Vegas Golden Knights, who also have a game in hand on them. The Kings will welcome Chicago on Thursday for their season finale. The lowly Blackhawks play tonight in Vegas, where the Golden Knights will conclude their campaign against the Ducks on Thursday.
Blake Lizotte scored the Kings' only goal. Captain Anze Kopitar returned to action, relegating PierreLuc Dubois to the fourth line once more. Cam Talbot stopped 26 of 29 shots.
Minnesota's leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov eclipsed a point-per-game
Up next: Blackhawks at Kings, final game of regular season, Thursday, 7:30 p.m., BSW
THE SCORE WILD 3, KINGS 1
average in his 16 career games against the Kings by scoring a goal and setting up another for Ryan Hartman. Marco Rossi added two assists, including one for Matt Boldy to open the scoring before Filip Gustavsson shut the door with 23 saves.
With 5:24 remaining in the match, Lizotte snapped a shot through traffic off the rush to break up what would have been Gustavsson's fourth shutout of the season.
Kaprizov had already given the Kings a cheeky grin and a certain loss after he made it 3-0 by banking the puck off Talbot's back and into the net with 11:35 to play.
Just like the opening 20 minutes, the second period saw the Kings grazed by one bullet and hit squarely by another, with the 2-0 count marking the 11th time this season that Kings were being shut out through two stanzas. They moved to 2-9 in that situation.
Kaprizov battled Phillip Danault and Matt Roy for a point-blank push toward an open net that inexplicably stayed out of the twine. Later, Kaprizov would put more oomph into a hit than he was able to into that shot when he blasted former Wild winger Kevin Fiala with a hip check during a rush in the third period.
Before that, Kaprizov finally gave the Wild that elusive two-goal lead when he connected with Hartman a mere 4.7 seconds before the second intermission. Joel Eriksson Ek stripped Kopitar at the blue line, sending Kaprizov and Hartman ahead on a two-on-one break. Kaprizov cut inside on Mikey Anderson as he lofted a saucer pass across to Hartman, who waited out Talbot momentarily before hoisting the puck over the goalie's drooping glove.