Takeaways: Marco Rossi’s shootout goal lifts Wild past Kings 4-3

What began as a scoring spree for the Wild ended as a drilling for their defense.

The Kings rallied from being down 3-0, scoring the equalizer in the final minute of regulation, before the Wild won in a shootout 4-3 on Monday night at Grand Casino Arena in backup goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s season debut.

Wallstedt, in only his sixth NHL start, made a career-high 31 saves before stopping all four shootout shots he faced for his third Wild victory, first in a shootout and first at home.

“It would have been nice if we could have kept it away from shootout and overtime,” Wallstedt said. “But two points on home ice against an out-of-division team, we’ll take it.”

Marco Rossi had the lone goal in the shootout in the fourth round, following a third period in which Los Angeles erased a 3-0 lead the Wild had held since opening 20 minutes.

That’s when the Wild scored three power-play goals, beginning with a wrister by captain Jared Spurgeon at 14 minutes, 4 seconds after a Marcus Johansson shot was blocked and the puck caromed right to Spurgeon.

Already on the power play, Kirill Kaprizov drew a hooking penalty to give the Wild a 5-on-3 advantage, and Kaprizov capitalized at 16:13 by flinging in a shot from the deep slot.

Vladimir Tarasenko assisted on both goals, while Kaprizov and Boldy are up to seven points apiece as one of the highest-scoring duos in the NHL right now; only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas (eight points each) have produced more.

Kaprizov, Boldy and Tarasenko, however, were denied in the shootout.

Overall, the Wild power play went 3-for-6 after contributing all the offense in the 7-4 loss to the Blue Jackets on Saturday.

“It’s nice,” Kaprizov said. “We take two points, but we need to play a little better when [it’s a] 3-0 game.”

Former Wild forward Kevin Fiala started Los Angeles’ comeback 3:53 into the third period on a bank shot off Wallstedt’s back.

To get to the shootout, the Wild had to survive a 1:25 4-on-3 power play for Los Angeles in overtime that saw the Kings miss the net three times and Wallstedt get a piece of three other shots.

“Just maybe got a little lackadaisical,” Spurgeon said. “But we ended up coming out with the win obviously because we had some huge saves in the shootout and overtime.”

BOXSCORE: Wild 4, Los Angeles 3 (SO)

NHL standings

The Wild’s three power-play goals came in 2:29 and tied for the second most in a single period in team history; their eight power-play goals overall are a Wild record through three games.

But this early in the season, any momentum is helpful. Plus, there’s never a bad time for the power play to get on a roll.

“They’re not overpassing or trying to play a little bit too cute,” coach John Hynes said. “So, that’s why the power play’s had success. [At] 5-on-5, we just got to get a little bit more of that.”

Defensively, the Wild weren’t as porous as they were during Columbus’ seven-goal splurge, but they are fortunate their collapse didn’t cost them both points.

They had some pushback in the third, during a few shifts by the fourth line that included Danila Yurov, who was making his NHL debut. But the Wild still weren’t as aggressive after the first period: The Kings outshot them 26-12 from the second period on, and the pressure caught up with them.

“We have to get in different situations and see how we respond to them,” said Hynes, who became the 50th coach in NHL history to reach 750 games. “The most important thing is you find ways to get two points, right? And then as we continue to grow along and hammer home how we want to do things in certain situations, then the expectation, as we move forward, [is] that we handle them better.”