Kings don’t let the Wild, or the points, slip away

The Kings had every reason to worry. They were winning . . . by one goal . . . after two periods.

This had spelled disaster in recent weeks, as three times it had resulted in a loss, costing the Kings points and confidence.

“We talked about it in the [dressing] room,” Dustin Brown said. “We had been in this position plenty of times this season.”

This time, the Kings got closure. They scored two third-period goals to cap a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Staples Center on Saturday.

This could be seen as the growth of young players, or simply the Kings running into a team that is circling the drain. The Wild has a season-high four-game losing streak and has scored only three goals in that span.

The Kings, though, will lean toward the glass-is-half-full version.

“We closed it out,” Brown said. “It’s that killer instinct we’re starting to develop. Now we just got to hit that every night.”

The Kings had been the ones hit in the past. Of their last four losses, three had been games in which they led after two periods. Two other times, the Kings blew one-goal leads late in the third period and saw points flutter away.

During one three-game streak two weeks ago, the Kings had the lead through two periods against Edmonton, Toronto and Phoenix. All they had to show for it was one point in a shootout loss to Edmonton.

The five points that got away were the difference between the Kings being a 12th-place team in the Western Conference and a seventh-place team.

“We’ve had our ups and downs in those situations,” Brown said. “Today, we attacked them.”

The Kings breathed a little easier after Matt Greene hit the post and Michal Handzus tapped in the rebound for a 2-0 lead three minutes into the third period. They gasped a little when Brent Burns scored a power-play goal to cut it to 2-1 with two minutes left.

They closed it out when the Wild simultaneously made a line change and pulled goaltender Niklas Backstrom while the Kings had the puck. The result was an empty-net goal by Alexander Frolov.

“We blew a couple of those games before,” said Anze Kopitar, who gave the Kings a 1-0 lead late in the first period. “We went out and played heavy, hitting guys, blocking shots.”

That aggressiveness was apparent throughout the game.

Kopitar scored because he went to the net as Brown dug the puck from beneath Backstrom’s pad. It scooted to Kopitar, who had an easy tap-in for his fifth goal in the last five games.

Handzus also put himself in position to score by crashing the net on Greene’s shot. The puck was deflected by the Kings’ Wayne Simmonds, who also barreled at the net, then hit the post. Handzus was there for the tap-in.

“Just crash the net, we got to keep doing that,” Greene said.

That would come in handy as they close out their homestand against teams that are not the gimme the Wild is at this point. The Kings play the San Jose Sharks on Monday and the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

“For us to continue to play with that 1-0 lead was very important,” Coach Terry Murray said. “It showed maturity and confidence. It shows we understand what we’re trying to do.

“We have to push ourselves to have higher expectations on a game-to-game basis.”

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chris.foster@latimes.com