Kings’ defensemen hurt in loss
Roy and Walker leave the game after scarylooking injuries as the series gets chippy.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Kirill Kaprizov scored the second goal of his rookie season to cap Minnesota’s three-goal first period and the Wild beat the Kings 5-3 on Thursday night.
Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Alex Iafallo scored for L.A. in the second straight and fourth overall meeting between the two teams this season. Jonathan Quick stopped 23 shots for the Kings, who lost defensemen Matt Roy and Sean Walker to scary-looking injuries.
Roy left after being pushed headfirst into the boards by Kevin Fiala, who was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct. Walker was hit in the face by Matt Dumba’s slap shot in the third and left a trail of blood as he tried to skate back to the bench.
Kings coach Todd McLellan said both were being seen by doctors and he expected them to travel with the team back to L.A.
Roy tried to stop on the play and his skates went out from underneath him.
“It will be on multiple videos,
teaching clips for young players, older players, junior players, pro players on basically what not to do,” McLellan said. “I feel bad for Roysie. I don’t even know if there’s any intent on the Fiala thing, it just happened. But we have to know by now that we can’t do that.”
The familiarity between the teams might have led to some early tension. Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno and Kings defenseman Kurtis MacDermid started a fight off the opening draw.
“There’s going to be lots
of bad blood this season because we’re playing teams so much,” Doughty said. “In the past, I don’t think there’s a ton of bad blood with Minnesota. But, yeah, I guess tonight some of that started.”
Kings forward Andreas Athanasiou was added to the NHL’s list of “players unavailable due to COVID protocols,” leaving his status for the upcoming schedule in doubt. It’s unknown why Athanasiou entered the league’s COVID protocols, or how long he will be away.
FIRST PERIOD: 1. Min., Johansson 2 (Soucy, Bonino), 3:33. 2. Min., Fiala 3, 8:17. 3. Min., Kaprizov 2 (Cole, Johansson), 12:55. MIN (fighting), 0:03. MacDermid, KINGS (fighting), 0:03. Lizotte, KINGS (slashing), 14:54.
SECOND PERIOD: 4. KINGS, Brown 3 (Doughty, Kopitar), 3:19 (pp). 5. KINGS, Doughty 3 (Kopitar, Amadio), 9:07 (pp). 6. Min., Bjugstad 2 (Parise, Brodin), 18:38.
MIN (slashing), 0:51. Eriksson Ek, MIN (tripping), 3:12. MacDermid, KINGS (slashing), 4:01. Fiala, MIN (misconduct), 5:34. Min. bench, served by Rask (boarding), 5:34. Bjugstad, MIN (delay of game), 12:11.
THIRD PERIOD: 7. Min., Eriksson Ek 5 (Greenway, Brodin), 4:44. 8. KINGS, Iafallo 2 (Clague, Brown), 9:41 (sh).
KINGS (tripping), 2:30. KINGS bench, served by Grundstrom (roughing), 5:03. Dumba, MIN (tripping), 7:16. Min. bench, served by Johansson (delay of game), 18:08.
SHOTS ON GOAL: KINGS 6-15-14—35. Min. 10-12-6—28. Power-play conversions—KINGS 2 of 7. Min. 0 of 4.
GOALIES: KINGS, Quick 2-1-2 (28 shots-23 saves). Min., Kahkonen 3-2-0 (35-32). T—2:32.