ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice within 12 seconds in the first period, and Cam Talbot stopped 29 shots in the Los Angeles Kings' 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
Dubois scored for the second straight game, giving him three goals in four games this season. His two scores 12 seconds apart in the first marked the third-fastest two goals scored in franchise history. Ralph Backstrom had a pair of goals six seconds apart in 1972 and Jari Kurri did the same 10 seconds apart in 1991.
Carl Grundstrom and Vladislav Gavrikov each scored their second goals of the season for Los Angeles, which has won back-to-back road games after going winless in two games at home to start the season.
Trevor Moore added his fourth goal of the season, his third straight game with a goal, midway through the third. Adrian Kempe and Blake Lizotte had empty-net goals.
“We’re starting to put our game together slowly,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “There’s still areas defensively that we can be better in.”
Connor Dewar and Kirill Kaprizov each scored goals in a second straight game for Minnesota. Joel Eriksson Ek added his fourth goal of the season late and Marc-Andre Fleury made his second straight start after a road win at Montreal, stopping 20 shots.
“We haven’t seen even close to our best game in all four, but we haven’t seen us be terrible, either,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We need to get going a little bit more — a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more pace, and hopefully that happens in a couple of days.”
The fourth lines each started the scoring for their respective teams. Grundstrom scored just 2:39 into the game and Dewar answered for the Wild less than four minutes later.
Kaprizov added his second goal of the season, deflecting in a point shot from Jonas Brodin. In the back-and-forth opening period, Gavrikov tied the game by cleaning up a scrum right in front of Fleury.
“Quite frankly, it was a strange period the way some of the goals went in and the type of challenges both ways,” McLellan said. “But, to come out of a strange period like that up two goals on the road, we’ll take it."
Dubois, who was acquired in June from Winnipeg in exchange for a second-round draft pick, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari and Gabriel Vilardi, finished the first with a flurry.
Dubois was sent into the offensive zone by a pass from former Wild winger Kevin Fiala and scored between Fleury’s legs. The goal was reviewed as it appeared Dubois tried to kick the puck to his stick but never managed to get his stick on the puck while being checked by Dewar.
Officials determined that the puck did go off a stick before beating Fleury.
“Hopefully, we do talk to the league and just who touched it," Evason said. "Because we went back in and there’s no touch. It certainly didn’t seem like it unless they have another angle. We didn’t see a touch.”
Then, with 46 seconds left in the period, Dubois was ready as Fiala intercepted Fleury’s clearing attempt and passed to Dubois for the goal.
Talbot, who played two seasons with Minnesota before Fleury joined the team, made his first start against the Wild since being traded to Ottawa for Filip Gustavsson.
“I think we just played ... 60 minutes consistent,” Fiala said. “They didn’t have much. It was a little bit of a weird game I thought. Not much on both ends, but we capitalized on our chances and won the game.”
KING KOPITAR
Anze Kopitar played in his 1,296th game with the Kings, tying Dustin Brown for most games played in team history. He also passed Brown for most road games in team history. Kopitar had an assist in the game, which was the 751st of his career, trailing only Marcel Dionne's 757 in team history.
UP NEXT
Kings: Return home against Boston on Saturday.
Wild: Host Columbus on Saturday night.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
