Wild rally for point but lose in shootout to Kings, 5-4

Sarah McLellan, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan 4, 2026

Published in Hockey

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LOS ANGELES — The Wild had a response to every Kings goal until the shootout.

After the Wild rallied four times, Los Angeles finally shrugged them off for good, 5-4, Saturday at Crypto.com Arena to drop the Wild to 3-0-2 on their season-long, seven-game road trip.

Adrian Kempe and Brandt Clarke capitalized in the four-round shootout after the Wild killed a 4-on-3 power play to close out overtime.

Jake Middleton, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Faber and Matt Boldy delivered the tying goals, all within 5 minutes of Los Angeles scoring; the Wild responded 2:28, 1:26, 2:39 and 4:54 later.

Middleton netted his first of the season. Eriksson Ek buried a stretch pass from Quinn Hughes on the power play. Faber polished off a nifty passing play between Kirill Kaprizov and Danila Yurov and then had his shot hit off former Wild forward Kevin Fiala and bounce in off Boldy for Boldy’s team-leading 26th goal. Boldy also had the Wild’s only shootout goal.

Hughes’ assist was his fifth in two games after he set the franchise record for assists by a defenseman by racking up four in the 5-2 victory at Anaheim the previous night.

Jesper Wallstedt had 34 stops, and former Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 24 for Los Angeles.

How it happened

This was Wallstedt’s first game since he was named to Sweden’s Olympic roster, and a future teammate in Adrian Kempe was the first to elude Wallstedt.

After Anze Kopitar poked the puck off Hughes, Kopitar set up a wide-open Kempe for a back-post one-timer 6:08 into the first period.

The Wild retaliated by 8:28 when Mats Zuccarello corralled a Zach Bogosian rebound and backhanded it to a pinching Middleton for his first goal in 47 games; Middleton’s last was March 15 vs. St. Louis.

In the second, both teams had looks on breakaways.

After Kaprizov’s try hit the crossbar, Wallstedt denied Andrei Kuzmenko, but Faber took a hooking penalty in the aftermath and the Kings took advantage when Quinton Byfield banked in a shot off Corey Perry at 16:57.

Barely a minute later, Byfield was penalized for holding, and the Wild answered back again, this time when Hughes’ stretch pass caught Eriksson Ek in stride for a rising shot past Kuemper. The Wild went 1 for 4 on the power play, while Los Angeles went 2 for 3.

This script carried over to the third: Byfield’s shot caromed off the end boards and into the crease where the puck deflected in off the Wild 4:54 into the period.

Again, the Wild retaliated and quickly.

Kaprizov moved the puck ahead to Yurov, who threw a pass across the zone to a net-crashing Faber for the redirect at 7:33.

Like clockwork, the Kings capitalized next, when Fiala found Samuel Helenius skating alone across the zone.

But the Wild reacted as expected.

Faber’s shot clipped Fiala’s skate to change direction and clip Boldy at the side of the net with 2:57 left in the third period.

Turning point

In overtime, the Wild failed to score on a lengthy shift for Boldy, Kaprizov and Hughes, and Kuemper denied Faber on a 2-on-1 with Eriksson Ek.

Seconds later, Faber was whistled for a high stick on Fiala. Los Angeles didn’t convert on the opportunity, but the Kings were better in the shootout: Fiala and Kopitar missed, but the Wild blanked on tries from Zuccarello, Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko.

Up next

The Wild are staying put for another game against the Kings on Monday, Jan. 5, their third game in the Los Angeles area in four days.