Wild wins slugfest against Kings, with more of the same on the horizon

ST. PAUL -- Among the benefits when the NHL created it's division-only schedule model for the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 season, was the potential for new and developing rivalries that could last long into the future.
If the game Thursday night between the Wild and Los Angeles Kings is any indication of what things could be like by the end of the season, it promises to be a smashing success.
The Wild scored three times in the first period, overcame a parade to the penalty box then pulled away late in an intense, playoff-like atmosphere in downtown St. Paul.

Well, as playoff-like as it can be in an arena with a few dozen people inside it.
The tone was set just three seconds into the game, when 6-foot-3, 225-pound Marcus Foligno dropped the mitts with 6-foot-5, 235-pound Kurtis MacDemid, a defenseman for the Kings.

"It was just something that maybe individually I took upon myself," Foligno said. "We just needed some energy and it worked out with a great first period. He's a big boy so just walking out there unscathed was good. It was good for myself and for the team to get going. You just need that adrenaline rush sometimes and it's always nice to be on the end where the guys on the bench pick it up."
The Wild was desperate for a good start, after a series of flat ones doomed them in consecutive losses to the San Jose Sharks and Kings earlier this week.
And while Foligno's fight charged the Wild's bench, it was the team's burst of offense that ended up carrying the team to a victory.
Marcus Johansson scored his second goal of the season and first since his overtime winner in Los Angeles in the season's second game. He'd add a brilliant assist on MInnesota's third goal, a beauty of a backdoor tap-in by Kirill Kaprizov, one that gave the Wild a three-goal lead headed into intermission.

"I think we just talked about in the room. We weren't gonna lose another one here at home," said Wild defenseman Matt Dumba. "It's got to be a tough place to come into. That's what we wanted to do tonight, and Moose kind of set things off and everyone else following suit. Made for a great start for us."
Minnesota couldn't keep that momentum into the second, as Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek each committed penalties in the first 3:12 of the period. Los Angeles took advantage of the second penalty when Anze Kopitar banked a point shot in off Dustin Brown's backside to make it 3-1.
Minnesota got a power play but saw it suddenly halted when Kevin Fiala was called for a boarding major when he checked Matt Roy dangerously into the boards. It's clear the hit wasn't intentional, as Fiala immediately checked on Roy's safety as he lay injured on the ice, but it still meant a five-minute power play for the Kings.
L.A. again took advantage, pulling to within 3-2 when Drew Doughty ripped a slap shot through Kappo Kahkonen from point-blank range.
Suddenly, less than halfway through what looked like a gimme of a game, it was anything but that at 3-2.

"We had to weather the storm," Foligno said. "Took a lot of penalties. We gotta get away from that, especially penalties early on. The one I took early was tough to get momentum going from what you started in the first."
A television timeout midway through the period seemed to give the Wild the breather it needed, as it slowly started to tilt the ice back in its favor. Then, late in the period, Nick Bjugstad scored his second goal of the year to push Minnesota's lead back to two.
Eriksson Ek would add yet another bonus goal 4:44 into the third, his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

Los Angeles would score again later in the third when former Minnesota Duluth Bulldog Alex Iafallo would rip a shot past Kahkonen, but what stood out about the game was the intensity with which it was played.
There was absolute carnage on the ice at several points.
Whether it was the fight to open the game, the check from behind that ended the night of both Roy and Fiala, a tripping penalty that sent both Dumba and MacDermid flying -- one hard into the boards and another awkwardly into the Wild's net -- or the Dumba slapper that caught Kings defenseman Sean Walker square in the face, leaving a pool of blood from the hash marks to the L.A. bench, it was clear that there was animosity between the clubs, who have played four times in the past two weeks.
These clubs will play four more times over the next four weeks as well, concluding their eight-game season series by the end of February.

"It's starting to accumulate, playing these guys, getting into battles and getting that rivalry going," Dumba said. "I think we did a good job handling it tonight, and hopefully we do that as well coming up when we go to California."
Considering how much animosity has built between the Wild and Kings in the span of two weeks, one can only imagine how heated Minnesota's upcoming series against the Colorado Avalanche might get.
It won't take two weeks for the long-time rivals to complete four games ... it's gonna take six days, beginning Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Games between the clubs have always had a playoff-like intensity to them, and that isn't expected to change this week.
If anything, it might ratchet up a little higher.
"It gets ramped up. If you keep playing the same team over and over again there's going to be some more grittiness and tempers flaring," Foligno said. "We know Colorado is more of a rival in the Western Conference. It's nothing new for us. We are excited to play them and have them come here first."
Evason agrees.
"Whoever we're playing we're going to play them so many times that you're just going to get those heated battles," he said. "Everybody wants that as a fan. The league wants it. The coaches want it. But mostly the players want it. They want to compete and get in there and see what they're doing and how they're playing is going to out-battle their opponent individually and then obviously as a team. It's exciting."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Kings 3