NHL Game Summary - Los Angeles at Minnesota
St. Paul, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - The Los Angeles Kings scored four goals against Darcy Kuemper in the first period to beat the Minnesota Wild 4-0 on Wednesday night.
The goals by Mike Richards, Dustin Brown, Tyler Toffoli and Justin Williams helped the Kings salvage a three-game road trip after two losses.
It was just their second road win of the season (2-4-4) and marked only the second home loss for the Wild (7-2-0).
Martin Jones made 28 saves for his fifth career shutout and first of the season.
Kuemper was pulled after giving up the four goals on just 10 shots before Niklas Backstrom stopped all 12 he faced over the last two periods.
Richards got a piece of Dwight King's shot from the right side to give the Kings a 1-0 lead 4:21 into the game.
Minutes later, Kuemper's stick was knocked into the corner after he dropped it making a save, but the Kings didn't get off another shot and the Wild survived by icing the puck.
Los Angeles then scored three times in a span of 6:37 near the end of the first period.
Brown got a wrist shot from the left side to squirt through Kuemper at 13:13 and Toffoli kept it himself on a 2-on-1 break and beat the Wild goaltender with a backhand deke with 1:42 left in the frame.
"They're a pretty good rush team and we forced them into turnovers which allowed us to have our own rush game, which is generally how we produce a lot of goals," said Brown.
Wild coach Mike Yeo said he thought about pulling Kuemper after the third goal but figured they could make it through the rest of the period with him in net.
"The list of regrets I have is very long," said Yeo. "We've pulled our goalies twice in this building. At some point you have to battle through (things) too."
Williams beat Kuemper with a wrister from the slot at 19:50 to give the Kings their 4-0 lead.