Kings, 2 vs. Wild, 1 SO

Another failed opportunity to string more than two wins together for the Minnesota Wild, as rookie blueliner Drew Doughty scores the gamewinning goal in the shootout to push the Kings pass the Wild for the 2-1 win. But even with the loss, with the extra point, the Wild actually moved up a spot to the 7th seed in the West. It was a really tight, kind of boring game with not a lot of good scoring chances, where the only goals scored by either team was on special teams. Antti Miettinen got a great feed from Mikko Koivu after Koivu picked off a pass from Doughty to allow for the odd-man rush and the shorthanded goal for Miettinen, while Jack Johnson got the goal for LA on the powerplay as Kim Johnsson shot the puck in off of Backstrom. Miettinen was the only Wild player to score in the shootout (Zidlicky, Koivu, and Burns), while both Johnson and Doughty scored on Backstrom (Kopitar and O'Sullivan) to give Backs his first shootout loss this season, and the first shootout goals scored on him in the shootout. No real glaring mistakes by either teams, the Wild just wasn't able to generate any good scoring chances.

Onto this 6-game 11-day road trip...and the next 14 of 17 on the road...

Notes:

• Andrew Brunette returned to action after missing 2 games; Colton Gillies and Kurtis Foster were the healthy scratches.
• Congrats to Kings' captain Dustin Brown, who missed the game, on the birth of his second child.
  

UP NEXT: Friday @ Calgary, 8:00pm CT