Kings lose their second in a row on the road, falling to Minnesota, 2-1

The Kings’ sneak-preview tour, March edition, of potential playoff opponents continued Tuesday, winding through the Central Division.

Another night, another look and another loss.

Minnesota moved back into a wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference as it defeated the Kings, 2-1, at Xcel Energy Center behind a standout effort from Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who made a season-high 38 saves.

He thwarted Kings defenseman Drew Doughty on two top-notch scoring attempts and came up big in denying defenseman Jake Muzzin late in regulation. Only Tyler Toffoli managed to solve Dubnyk, scoring his 27th goal of the season at 11:35 of the second period, from Dwight King and Doughty.

“I thought it was better than it was yesterday,” said Kings center Anze Kopitar. “Special teams turned out to be the difference. We’ve got to figure out how to get a power-play goal. I thought we had some good looks but we’ve got to capitalize on it. That was the difference tonight.”

The Kings lost to Nashville and Minnesota on back-to-back nights after clinching a playoff spot on Saturday. Quite often, however, it’s not advisable to read too much into the final games of the season.

The Kings have nine games remaining and lead the Ducks by four points in the Pacific Division.

They were without left wing Tanner Pearson for the Minnesota game because of personal reasons. Kris Versteeg (injured foot) has been out since Saturday. Kings Coach Darryl Sutter also spoke of winger Marian Gaborik, out with an injured knee since Feb. 12.

“Some guys didn’t score for us in the lineup, missing some players. Nothing to do with the power play,” Sutter said. “It’s tough to score in this league. We didn’t have Pearson tonight and Versteeg and Gaborik. That means other guys gotta step up. You can’t use it as an excuse.”

Muzzin came close to tying it with about 3:33 left in regulation.

“It was tough. It kind of happens in slow motion,” Dubnyk said. “You see the shot comes and it hits two guys, and slows down, and is just kind of going to a place — I can see the guy coming in to get it. You kind of just do everything you can to get there before him. Then after that, I’m really just trying to throw my hands at it.”

Minnesota’s opportunities were spaced out — just three shots in the first period — but the Wild took advantage, scoring on their first shot of the game (Erik Haula) at 3:46 of the first period. Mikko Koivu’s power-play goal made it 2-0 at 3:13 of the second.

“Difficult when you look up at the clock and there are eight shots and you’re down two-cob,” Sutter said.

The game marked the NHL debut of Kings center Nic Dowd, who played collegiate hockey, not far from here, at St. Cloud State.

When the Kings found out Pearson would be unavailable, they called up Dowd from their minor league affiliate in Ontario.

“I felt really good,” said Dowd. “The adrenaline really kicked in. I was fortunate my first shift was in the O-zone, not the D-zone.”

He took a high stick in the face from Haula at 1:34 of the first, and Haula was penalized. Dowd looked comfortable playing with Toffoli and King and logged 12 minutes and 15 seconds of ice time.

“It hit me the most when I stepped on the ice for warmups,” Dowd said. “I always pictured the first time I saw my name on the back of a jersey would be something where I felt like I could maybe do this for a living. Seeing that today was something I’ll never forget.”

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter @reallisa