St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Brian Rolston tallied a pair of goals to
lead the Minnesota Wild to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at Xcel
Energy Center.
Manny Fernandez stopped 35 shots while Todd White scored a goal and added a
pair of assists for the Wild, who have won two straight and eight of their
nine games. Minnesota has won all six home games this season.
"We did a good job in the zone, and our (defense) was getting involved
in the offensive zone, which makes it more difficult for them to play in their
end, said Rolston. "We were really buzzing and we didn't play as well in the
third, but all in all Manny was great and we played a solid game as a team."
Brian Willsie scored his first goal of the season and Dan Cloutier made 26
saves for the Kings, who have lost three straight contests.
"They're very hot," said Cloutier. "They are a little bit different than what
they used to (be). Obviously being from Vancouver I used to play them quite a
bit. They seem a lot different. They seem like they have more offense this
year. They seem like they are going for it more. Obviously they have some
great shooters. Lets not kid ourselves, they have a great lineup there. They
have great puck-moving defensemen."
The Wild got on the board first with less than seven minutes to play in the
opening period. White took a shot that was stopped by Cloutier, however,
Rolston was right there to stuff the rebound inside the right post for a 1-0
lead.
Minnesota doubled its lead to 2-0 with 11:26 to play in the second, as Pierre-
Marc Bouchard fed a pass to White, who dished the puck to Rolston in front of
the net. The forward took a shot that was initially stopped, but Rolston put
the rebound in the net past a sprawled out Cloutier.
White tallied a power-play goal to extend the Wild margin to 3-0 14:58 into
the middle stanza. Bouchard sped down the ice with the puck before feeding the
disc to White, who wristed the shot from outside the crease top shelf for his
third goal of the season.
The Kings got on the board at the 10:53 mark of the third when Anze Kopitar
broke through two defenders and drew out Fernandez as he skated across the
goal mouth. Alexander Frolov grabbed a loose puck behind the net and fed a
pass to Willsie, who fired a slap shot into the open net, cutting the deficit
to 3-1.
Los Angeles pulled its netminder with two minutes to play and Fernandez
stopped Kopitar's shot with 1:03 to play. With 29 seconds remaining and an
empty net for LA, Kim Johnsson was called for a cross-checking penalty for a
two-man advantage, but the Kings couldn't put the puck on net.
