The Wild needed less than two minutes to rally from a slow start, but they were even quicker to fall apart again.
A pair of goals in just 12 seconds on back-to-back shifts capped off a three-score blitz by the Kings late in the first period that sunk the Wild 7-3 on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center and put them at a ho-hum 2-2 a week into their season.
Los Angeles’ Pierre-Luc Dubois, off assists from former Wild forward Kevin Fiala, became the fastest player to capitalize twice against the Wild, his 12-second tear kicking off with a controversial call.
Dubois broke a 2-2 tie with 58 seconds to go in the first after a rolling puck that Dubois kicked ahead while battling with the Wild’s Connor Dewar skidded five-hole on goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
The goal went to video review, with the NHL deciding Dubois’ stick connected with the puck before it went in the net to negate an illegal kick, but the ruling was met with boos from the crowd — especially after an iffy-looking replay was shown on the video board.
The Wild seemed rattled, too.
After the ensuing faceoff, which was won by the Kings, Fiala intercepted a Fleury clearing attempt and his throw to the middle bounced off Ryan Hartman and right to — who else? — Dubois for the deposit behind Fleury with 46 seconds to go.
Add in the Vladislav Gavrikov backhander through traffic at 15:46, and Los Angeles flipped a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead in a breezy 3:38.
Overall, the four goals are the most given up by the Wild in a period this season.
The Kings tacked on a fifth goal, from Trevor Moore, 10:13 into the third, before Joel Eriksson Ek one-timed a Marcus Johansson pass at 14:38. Adrian Kempe (2:19 to go) and Lindstrom’s Blake Lizotte (1:08 while shorthanded) drained empty-netters.
What made the Wild’s first period collapse even more jarring was that it came after the team had control.
They were trailing after just 2:39 when a Carl Grundstrom shot handcuffed Fleury, who was making consecutive starts and finished with 20 saves.
But over the next 10-plus minutes, Los Angeles registered just one shot while the Wild amped up the pressure against their former netminder Cam Talbot, who made 29 saves in his first game against the Wild since the team traded him to Ottawa in 2022 for Filip Gustavsson.
Dewar pounced on a fortuitous bounce off the end boards into the slot for the equalizer at 6:21. By 8 minutes, the Wild moved up 2-1 on a Kirill Kaprizov deflection off a Jonas Brodin point shot – this after a tenacious cycle along the boards by Hartman and Mats Zuccarello.
These goals were the second in as many games for both Dewar and Kaprizov, and each came at 5-on-5 after the penalty kill and power play carried the Wild to a 5-2 victory at Montreal on Tuesday.
The Kings actually challenged Kaprizov’s finish to check if the play was off-side; it wasn’t, and that gave the Wild the first of two power plays in the period. But after scoring three times vs. the Canadiens, the power play couldn’t sustain that momentum and blanked on those two chances before another try in the second and one in the third. Los Angeles didn’t receive a single power play.
