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The Los Angeles Kings shut out the Minnesota Wild at home last night, picking up a 1-0 win.
It was a strong opening period for the Kings, outshooting Minnesota by a 10-3 margin. They had some power play opportunities as the period went on where they built a bit of momentum but couldn’t capitalize, and the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes.
The game opened up a little bit in the second period, and Jonathan Quick had to be good to deny some chances around the net. The Kings did have a third power play they couldn’t convert on and then just after it expired, Kirill Kaprizov took a match penalty for cross-checking/high-sticking Drew Doughty in the face, giving Los Angeles another man advantage, this time extended. While the Kings did build pressure, they didn’t get Marc-Andre Fleury moving enough and didn’t have a ton of shots from good spots, once again not being able to capitalize.
After a fairly slow third period though, Los Angeles finally managed to get on the board, with Gabriel Vilardi taking a pass from Anze Kopitar and beating Fleury for his 10th goal of the year. Los Angeles was able to hang on from there, taking a 1-0 win.
While it was a pretty low-event game overall, the Kings put together a good outing.
They were getting more chances than they were giving up and held Minnesota to just 21 shots. More importantly though, they weren’t making avoidable mistakes and they really limited chances for the Wild off the rush.
If there’s one thing to take issue with, it was the Kings’ power play going 0-for-4. While they were able to get set up and start moving the puck around, they weren’t getting a ton of great chances and it was often a matter of just throwing the puck at the net.
Regardless, after several games early this season where Los Angeles has been irresponsible defensively, this was a nice change of pace. While Jonathan Quick didn’t face a huge workload, he made some important saves as well.
With the win, the Kings jump to an 8-6-1 record. Their next game comes tomorrow, when they face the Chicago Blackhawks once again.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM NOVEMBER
Kings drop back down to .500 following 5-2 loss to Stars
Kings come up short against Blackhawks, lose in overtime
Kings kick off four-game homestand with win over Panthers 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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