Hartman scores twice, Wild defeat Kings for 3rd straight victory

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Ryan Hartman scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in their third straight win, 2-1 against the Los Angeles Kings at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

They were Hartman's eighth and ninth goals of the season, four of which have been scored in the past six games.
"I'm getting a lot more odd-man rushes than earlier in the year," Hartman said. "We're getting opportunities to score and shooting opportunities from good areas, [and] that wasn't really the case before. Had a chance to score one on the other side before the second goal; it just hit his glove. So, it's nice to get inside there."

Filip Gustavsson made 33 saves for the Wild (31-21-5), who finished 4-2-1 on a seven-game homestand. All four of their victories were decided by one goal.
"[The homestand] started off tough," Gustavsson said. "We were out of the wild card spot (in the Western Conference), we had a little dip in our confidence. It didn't feel like the bounces went our way. We had to kind of force it.
"Just get more people to the net. Get more shots there, and then give them less opportunities to score on us. We got one-goal wins, and that's what we need to get it back."
Anze Kopitar scored for the third straight game, and Pheonix Copley made 18 saves for the Kings (32-19-7), who had won four in a row.
It was the start of a five-game road trip for Los Angeles that continues Thursday at the New Jersey Devils.
"We're leaving here without any points, but I thought we played a pretty good game," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "We played hard, we created a number of chances. … We've just got to find a way to convert, and some nights it doesn't go your way.
"But I didn't think we had a lot of passengers. We had everybody engaged in the game, so we'll chalk it up, we'll move on and try to recover for the next one."
Minnesota forward Adam Beckman had what would have been his first NHL goal taken away on a power play at 9:25 of the first period, but Los Angeles successfully challenged that Hartman entered the zone offside.

But Hartman's 100th NHL goal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead just 13 seconds into the second period. Kirill Kaprizov spun and left the puck for Hartman in the right face-off circle, where he scored with a wrist shot.
"What we liked is [Hartman's] speed, his work, his drive," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "He put himself in a position to do it. We've watched him and seen him. It was really good."
Gustavsson made 14 saves in the second to keep it a one-goal game, and Hartman made it 2-0 at 15:12 of the third period when he brought the puck into the zone from his own blue line and beat Copley with a wrist shot from the right circle.
Kopitar ended Gustavsson's shutout when he scored on a rebound with 21 seconds left for the 2-1 final.
"We got some good [offensive]-zone time, we just couldn't get it to go," said Kopitar, the Kings captain. "Their goalie played good. Give them credit with where credit is due."

NOTES: Kaprizov has five points (four goals, one assist) in his past five games. … Kopitar has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in the past six games. … The Kings scored at least five goals in each game during their winning streak.