Stalock makes 30 saves, Wild pull away in third to defeat Kings

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Alex Stalock made 30 saves, and the Minnesota Wild scored three goals in the third period in a 5-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Matt Dumba had two assists, and Mikko Koivu scored his first goal of the season for Minnesota (4-7-0), which has won three of its past four games.
The Wild have won three in a row at home for the first time since Oct. 20-27, 2018.
"We talked about it before the game tonight with the media]; we need to win games at home right now because we know our schedule, it's road-dominant, and we need to make it really hard to come in here and even get one point out of us," said Stalock, who is starting while No. 1 goalie Devan Dubnyk recovers from an upper-body injury. "I think you saw a team in here that made another team super frustrated. It's getting pucks deep, playing hard and playing physical. It goes a long way."
***[WATCH: [All Kings vs. Wild highlights]*
Ben Hutton scored, and Jonathan Quick made 22 saves for Los Angeles (4-7-0), which was outshot 14-7 in the third period and allowed five goals in consecutive losses (5-2 to St. Louis Blues on Thursday).
"When you start to press and you get frustrated, you work your way out of structure," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "You could see the mistakes at 3-1, especially at 4-1, started to leak.
"We're not structured well enough, we're not built well enough yet to get out of what we're supposed to be doing and roam."
Gerry Mayhew redirected Dumba's wrist shot at 5:50 of the first period to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.

Hutton tied it 1-1 at 4:29 of the second period with a one-timer just inside the blue line. It was his first goal with the Kings after signing a one-year contract as an unrestricted free agent Sept. 17.
"[I] was kind of itching for [a goal], finally got one," Hutton said. "Felt good, but a win would have felt better."
Staal scored with a snap shot at 17:04 of the second to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. He has three goals in two games and five points (three goals, two assists) in the past four.
Los Angeles outshot Minnesota 14-5 in the second and had a 5-on-3 power play for 14 seconds late in the period but failed to score. The Kings finished 0-for-3 with the man-advantage.
Joel Eriksson Ek, who returned after missing three games because of a lower-body injury, deflected Dumba's shot between Quick's pads 28 seconds into the third period to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.

Koivu made it 4-1 at 6:39 on a rebound, and Jared Spurgeon scored at 12:24 for the 5-1 final.
"We dug ourselves a hole," Spurgeon said of the Wild, who got off to a 1-6-0 start. "But if you're able to win every week, the majority of your games, it's slowly going to come. It's not going to happen in a week, but if we keep doing this, we'll slowly get back into a position where we want to be."

They said it

"[It's] hard to put your finger on one thing [that went wrong]. It does sting when they get an early goal for sure. I thought the second period was pretty dominant on our side, but overall we have to be mentally strong and not let it get to us." -- Kings defenseman Ben Hutton
"[Stalock] kept us in when we needed to be kept in and the competitive fire that he has. He wasn't happy with his game in Nashville (a 4-0 loss on Thursday), and he comes right back and you could tell he was on point in everything today." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau on goalie Alex Stalock

Need to know

Kings center Anze Kopitar had a three-game point streak end (two goals, one assist). … Through 11 games, Los Angeles has allowed nine goals in the first seven minutes of the first period. … Eleven players had at least one point for the Wild. … Koivu has 42 points (13 goals, 29 assists) in 42 games against the Kings. … Dumba has four points (one goal, three assists) in the past four games.

What's next

Kings: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Wild: At the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW+, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)