Anze Kopitar gets 1,200th career point as Kings rout Wild
Captain Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist while recording his 1,200th career point, David Rittich made 30 saves in his third shutout of the season, and the Kings routed the Minnesota Wild 6-0 on Wednesday night.
Viktor Arvidsson had his first goal of the season and an assist in his return from a month-long injury absence. Kevin Fiala and Phillip Danault also had a goal and an assist as the Kings wrapped up back-to-back home victories by a combined 12-2 over the last two days.
Matt Roy and Jordan Spence also scored for L.A., while Rittich was solid in the backup goalie’s seventh career shutout and third in his last 10 starts.
The 36-year-old Kopitar became the 52nd player in NHL history to score 1,200 points when he got the primary assist on Fiala’s goal in the first period. Kopitar added a power-play goal late in the second, passing Dino Ciccarelli for 51st on the career scoring list.
The Slovenian center has spent his entire 18-season career in Los Angeles. According to the NHL, Kopitar is the fourth player in league history born outside North America to score 1,200 points with one team, joining Alex Ovechkin, Stan Mikita and Evgeni Malkin.
Marc-Andre Fleury faced only 16 shots before Filip Gustavsson replaced him in the second period with Minnesota down 5-0. Fleury’s teammates deflected two of the goals past him in a comprehensively ugly effort by the Wild, who came in with an eight-game points streak after beating Anaheim 4-0 one night earlier for their sixth win in those eight games.
The Wild finished their three-game road trip at 1-1-1 after being shut out for the fourth time this season, but only the first since Jan. 13, when Arizona beat them 6-0.
Minnesota also missed the chance to gain ground on Los Angeles, which moved seven points ahead of the Wild in the Western Conference playoff picture.
Los Angeles went ahead five minutes in when Danault scored his 17th goal on an alert deflection. Fiala, who forced a Wild turnover to set up Danault, then roofed a shot from the slot against his former team during a power play for his 23rd goal.
Arvidsson scored a minute later when Minnesota’s Dakota Mermis slid on his belly to block a centering pass, but instead deflected it past Fleury. Arvidsson missed the first 50 games of the season while recovering from back surgery, and he played just four games in February before missing 14 more games with a new lower-body injury.
Roy scored 28 seconds into the second period, ending his 16-game goal drought. Minnesota’s Nick Foligno then accidentally made it 5-0 when he deflected Spence’s shot under Fleury for the L.A. defenseman’s second goal in four games after not scoring a goal in the Kings’ first 54 games.
The third period featured 130 combined penalty minutes, including 12 misconducts.
Up next
Kings host Tampa Bay on Saturday.
