Kings dethrone NHL’s hottest team in dominant win over Minnesota

LOS ANGELES –– The Kings became the NHL’s hottest team by knocking off the heretofore surging Minnesota Wild, 4-1, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening.

The Wild had achieved a league-best five consecutive wins before facing the Kings, who extended their winning streak to five games. Just 22 hours after Minnesota dismantled the Ducks 5-1, they lacked vigor while the Kings played a calculated game. They wore the visitors down and successfully exploited occasional lapses in their defensive zone coverage.

For the Kings, the win continued a run that has seen them topple titans of the early season: the Winnipeg Jets, like Minnesota, came into their matchup with the Kings as the best team in pro hockey and the Dallas Stars had hectored the Kings in recent campaigns.

“We like the challenge of playing against top teams. You have to be at your best, you need everybody, so those are fun as a group,” said Darcy Kuemper, who repelled 22 shots against his former club in his first appearance since sustaining a lower-body injury on Nov. 13. “They’re good measuring sticks. We consider ourselves a top team, so when we play against those teams, we feel like we’ve got a lot to prove.”

Adrian Kempe and Alex Laferriere, the Kings’ two leading goal-scorers, each lit the lamp. Kempe also set up one of two empty-net tallies for last year’s top sniper, Trevor Moore. Anže Kopitar assisted on Kempe’s goal to punctuate the captain’s 1400th career game. Only three other active players have reached that milestone.

Yakov Trenin scored for Minnesota. The 40-year-old Marc-André Fleury had 30 saves in what was the three-time Stanley Cup champion’s final regular-season visit to Los Angeles.

The Wild trounced the Ducks behind a nine-point night split evenly between its three top-line forwards, who have shouldered a bigger load as Minnesota contended with injuries to three of its other best players. Against the Kings, that trio was held scoreless by a five-man swarm anchored by a rigid matchup of their top D-pairing against the NHL’s leading scorer, Kirill Kaprizov, and chums.

“I definitely would not want to play against Mikey (Anderson) and (Vladislav Gavrikov) on a day-to-day basis. Those guys just did an unbelievable job,” Laferriere said.

The Kings continued their dominance of closing stanzas, as Moore’s empty-netters made them the NHL’s highest-scoring team in the third period. Between his markers, Trenin broke up what would have been Kuemper’s second shutout of the year with his second goal of the season but his second in less than 24 hours after scoring late in Anaheim on Friday.

In the second period, a fight with Marcus Foligno left Tanner Jeannot’s face bloodied but it was the Wild who were battered on the scoreboard by the Kings’ power-play goal at 8:33.

Laferriere received a Jordan Spence pass in the left circle, using his eyes to scan for a pass but employing his hands to load up a filthy wrist shot that he scooped to the far side to beat Fleury cleanly. Laferriere’s 12th goal equaled his total from all of last season when he played three times as many games as he has so far this year.

“Phil (Danault) made an unbelievable screen there. We talked before the faceoff about where I wanted to shoot and I told him ‘far side,’” said Laferriere, who said he was more comfortable on the power play, both in his new position and in general. “I don’t even think the goalie saw it.”

Entering the game, the Kings and Wild were tied for the fewest first-period goals allowed in the NHL, producing a predictably measured first frame with Kuemper and Fleury each erasing the odd miscue, until the final minute.

Kopitar and Kempe switched positions before Kopitar curled into the right circle while Kempe burst to the back post. Kopitar’s shot-pass was redirected home by Kempe for his team-leading 13th goal with 43 seconds before the first intermission.

Kopitar joined Ryan Suter, Alex Ovechkin and Brent Burns among his active contemporaries who had reached 1400 career games.

“Darryl Sutter was here tonight … he came in the coaches’ room after (the game) and I said ‘what do you think of Kopi’ and he was just amazed,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He’s coached him more than anybody. A lot of respect there from Darryl to Kopi and it’s just well, well-deserved, from all of us who are pretty fortunate to be able to witness what we’re witnessing in real time.”

Sutter, who attended the game with his son Chris and other family members, wasn’t the only Kings luminary on hand, as Wayne Gretzky’s favored protector Marty McSorley was also at the arena. They were treated to a Kings win but also a vintage performance from Fleury, who will one day bring his singular charisma to the podium for a Hall of Fame induction speech.

“He’s a guy I looked up to when I was just a little guy. Watching him play, I’m sure every young goalie wanted to be Marc-André Fleury,” Kuemper, 34, said. “There’s not many guys left in the league that I grew up watching so it’s really special for me to get to go out and play against a guy like him. He was tremendous tonight.”