Kopitar secures Kings’ first win with OT wrister

“You saw lots of chances back and forth”.

Darcy Kuemper made his first start in goal of the season, and he did his part and then a few to keep the Wild in the game.

From LA’s perspective, the only reason this game got to overtime was Darcy Kuemper.

Yeo had hoped the Wild might give Kuemper a chance to succeed in his second National Hockey League start in nine months.

“I’m very proud of our players”, coach Patrick Roy told the Avalanche’s official website.

Kopitar, whose strong skating makes him ideal in this wide-open-ice exercise, scored from the right side two minutes and 19 seconds into overtime to touch off a mad celebration. They also have powerplay goals in each game, and Zach Parise extended his points streak to 4 games. It was a broken coverage and a failure to slow down Mike Richards at the blue line that led to the goal. Cold teams and cold goalies are tough to recommend, play with caution.

The assist was Lucic’s first point as a member of the Kings, who acquired him from Boston last summer in hopes he would boost their anemic offense. Semyon Varlamov has allowed 13 goals on 82 shots faced and Reto Berra has given up zero goals on 40 shots. They were sloppy, they were slow, and zone exiting was a chore Friday night.

The Wild appeared to get their legs going better in the third period.

The Wild continued their pressure on the Kings net out shooting LA in the third 10 to 4. A backhand from the slot pulled the Wild even with the Kings on the scoreboard.

We did it. pic.twitter.com/g9xsXt7h3nIf the Kings didn’t look like a more complete, composed squad Friday night, their 16-shot count in the first period showed it – which was one more than their total of 15 in their 3-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

To overtime and the first Wild 3v3 overtime ever. Neither team could break through and the period ended with no score. Minnesota’s penalty-killing unit staved off all seven power plays by the Arizona Coyotes in Thursday’s 4-3 road win. The only goal the Kings scored in regulation was a power play rush goal by Tyler Toffoli; Jeff Carter burst into the zone with speed, Milan Lucic lasered a saucer pass about six inches off the ice, and Toffoli knocked it down before quickly putting the puck in the top corner.

The Wild will now travel down Highway 5 to Anaheim and will take on the Ducks.

In danger of opening with four straight losses for the first time in club history, Los Angeles (1-3-0) didn’t panic but spent its practice time working to solve those early problems.