Make it four straight victories for the Minnesota Wild after they disposed of the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Eric Fehr put the Wild up 1-0 with a goal late in the opening period and Minnesota made it 2-0 on a second-period goal by Jonas Brodin, which was a thing of beauty compared to the sliding goal Fehr scored.
Empty net tallies by Mikael Granlund and Mikko Koivu in the final minute of the third period pushed the difference in the final margin to three.
As comfortable as the box score makes the outcome seem, it wasn’t. The Wild had to kill three consecutive L.A. power plays, essentially spending six minutes in a seven-minute span down a man thanks to back-to-back penalties on Jordan Greenway and one on Eric Staal.
“You never want to have to kill three in a row like that, but we’re feeling strong with our groups, we’re keeping the same guys together, we’re getting a little chemistry there too,” Fehr said., via ESPN.
Ryan Suter had two assists for the Wild in his 1,000th career game, making him the 109th defenseman in NHL history to play at least 1,000 games.
Minnesota is now 5-2-2 and 4-0-2 at home, where they’ll remain as they await Saturday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.
