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Zuccarello gets tiebreaking goal late in 3rd period, Wild rally to beat Kings 3-1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 4:38 left and the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Monday night.
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Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) celebrates with teammates after his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Los Angeles Kings, Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 4:38 left and the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Monday night.

Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, Marcus Johansson also scored, and Jared Spurgeon had two assists for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson finished with 28 saves.

Adrian Kempe scored for Los Angeles, and Darcy Kuemper — coming off shutouts in his last two starts — had 19 saves. The Kings snapped a five-game win streak.

Zuccarello got a pass from Matt Boldy in the left circle, settled the puck and fired it past Kuemper with Marco Rossi screening the goalie to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. It was hist 100th goal since signing with the Wild in 2019.

Johansson added an empty-netter with 56 seconds left to seal the win.

Kempe gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 4:59 into the game as he scored on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Kevin Fiala.

Hartman tied it at 1:51 of the second with a power-play goal as he redirected Jared Spurgeon's point shot in the air past Kuemper. That ended the goalie's shutout streak at 176:06.

Takeaways

Kings: Los Angeles fell to 25-7-4 when scoring first and remained one point behind Edmonton for second place in Pacific Division.

Wild: Minnesota won for the second time in six games (2-3-1). The Wild have a firm grip on the first wild card in the Western Conference and pulled four points behind third-place Colorado in Central Division

Key moment

Gustavsson made a stellar save to snare Drew Doughty's one timer from center point through traffic 2:05 into the third period to keep the score tied 1-1.

Key stat

The Wild were 2 for 3 on the power play after coming in 2 for 6 over the previous three games.

Up next

Kings play at Chicago on Thursday to finish a two-game trip, and Wild host Seattle on Wednesday,

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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

The Associated Press

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