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Kings tag Wild with first loss of season

Los Angeles goes 3-for-3 in shootout to topple Minnesota

Image: ThorntonAP
Los Angeles' Scott Thornton, left, is congratulated by Jaroslav Modry after scoring a goal against the Wild during the first period.

LOS ANGELES - Anze Kopitar scored a short-handed goal in the third period, and the Los Angeles Kings connected on all three shots in the shootout to beat Minnesota 4-3 on Tuesday night, the Wild’s first loss of the season.

Scott Thornton and Kyle Calder scored for the Kings, who had lost five straight after beating the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks in London in the season opener.

Dustin Brown and Michael Cammalleri also scored in the shootout for Los Angeles.

Pavol Demitra, Mikko Koivu and Brian Rolston scored for the Wild, who remain the only team in the league that hasn’t lost in regulation. Their only goal in the shootout was by Petteri Nummelin.

Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who began the season on injured reserve because of a groin injury, made 28 saves in his 200th NHL game and first with the Kings. Rookie Jonathan Bernier, who was in net for the Kings’ opening-night victory, was returned to his junior team in Lewiston, Maine on Monday after allowing 15 goals over his last three starts.

The Kings grabbed a 3-2 lead with 13:34 left in the third on Kopitar’s third career short-handed goal. Kopitar knocked the puck off Demitra’s stick about 10 feet inside the Kings’ blue line, carried it into the Wild zone and beat Niklas Backstrom with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Rolston tied it with exactly 12 minutes left in regulation, beating Aubin to the stick side with a slap shot from the top of the right circle.

Koivu put Minnesota ahead 2-1 just 43 seconds into the second period, beating Aubin to the stick side from the low slot after Rolston took the puck away from Kings center Patrick O’Sullivan behind the net.

Calder tied it at 7:42 of the second on a tip-in of Brad Stuart’s one-timer from 45 feet on the power play.

Minnesota did not get a shot on net until Demitra converted a rebound of Marian Gaborik’s 40-foot slap shot at 7:25 of the first period.

Referee Stephane Auger had his arm raised to call a delayed penalty against the Wild when Thornton tied the score for the Kings, 30 seconds after Minnesota finished killing off a four-minute penalty.

Notes: This was the eighth overtime game in the last 13 meetings between the teams. ... Minnesota RW Mark Parrish played in his 600th NHL game. His mother Barb was one of 17 players’ moms who were guests of the Wild during the team’s three-game western swing. So was Tuire Koivu, and Camilla Backstrom, who came from Finland. ... Aubin, who signed with the Kings as an unrestricted free agent in August, made 16 saves in the second period after facing only four shots in the first. ... Minnesota was 0-for-3 on the power play, making them 1-for-22 altogether. ... This was the first time this season that Minnesota has allowed more than two goals. Backstrom, who has started every game for the Wild except Sunday’s 2-0 win at Anaheim, allowed more than two goals for the first time in his last 17 regular-season starts. ... The Kings came in with a league-worst 4.60 goals-against average.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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