Wild scores six straight goals to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 6-3 after digging early hole

Wild coach Dean Evason thought the team might need a wake-up call after it sleepwalked into a three-goal hole barely 10 minutes after the puck dropped Sunday, and he had a couple of options for sounding the alarm.

"You can call a timeout and yell at them," Evason said, "or you can pull the goalie and it snaps them into place."

But Evason chose neither.

"It's better to let the players figure it out," he said.

And they did.

The Wild eventually stirred, undoing its awful start on three consecutive shots before dumping the Kings 6-3 in front of 19,104 at Xcel Energy Center for its largest rally of the season and just the franchise's ninth three-goal comeback ever.

"We picked ourselves back up and dusted the boots off and went to work," Jake Middleton said.

This was the Wild's eighth multi-goal comeback of the season, a franchise record that is tops in the NHL. The team is 12-2-3 over its last 17 and returned to second place in the Central Division after getting bumped by the Blues. St. Louis also has 94 points, but the Wild holds the tiebreaker since it's played one fewer game.

Mats Zuccarello's goal off a faceoff 9 minutes, 46 seconds into the second period was the clincher, putting the Wild ahead 4-3 before the team padded its lead. Marcus Foligno deflected in the puck at 13:59 before Nick Bjugstad cleaned up the rebound from Middleton's shot that hit the post 3:16 into the third.

Those tallies capped off six in a row by the Wild to make up for a disastrous beginning.

"We were doing nothing correctly," Evason said. "Nothing."

Los Angeles scored shorthanded just 1:33 into the first period when Rasmus Kupari flipped the puck over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after a Kevin Fiala turnover.

Next up was an even-strength goal for the Kings, with Carl Grundstrom skating from behind the net to sling a backhander through traffic and by Fleury at 8:22. Then Los Angeles' Adrian Kempe capitalized on the power play at 10:17.

"I wasn't happy with myself to start the game," said Fleury, who whacked his stick against the post after the Kings' third goal. "The breakaway to start and the power play I should've saved. The second one I didn't see."

Instead of signaling it was in trouble by motioning for a timeout or pulling Fleury, the Wild started to rally.

Kirill Kaprizov banked in a shot off a Los Angeles stick at 16:04 in the first during a power play for his 42nd goal, which ties Marian Gaborik (2007-08) and Eric Staal (2017-18) for the Wild's single season record. Kaprizov is up to 89 points with 11 games left in the regular season.

The Wild's next shot 50 seconds later was a one-timer from Matt Boldy, who was back in action after missing four games with an upper-body injury. He also assisted on Kaprizov's goal, giving him back-to-back multi-point efforts for the first time in his career.

"That was key," Evason said of scoring twice before the first period ended.

Not until 1:39 into the second did the Wild put another puck on net, and the backhander by captain Jared Spurgeon erased its deficit. Spurgeon also registered an assist, and his career-high seven-game assist and point streaks are tied for the longest in Wild history by a defenseman.

Zuccarello's go-ahead goal was his 499th point, set up by the 100th assist of Ryan Hartman's career. Both power plays went 1-for-3, and Cal Petersen pocketed 27 saves for the Kings.

"Every cliche is kind of what wins you hockey games in the second half of the year and going into playoffs," said Middleton, who finished with two assists. "That's what we did. We stuck with what works and battled back and ran away with it."

As for Fleury, he was airtight the rest of the way — stringing together 29 consecutive saves to end up with 31 overall. He's now 4-1 with the team.

"We trust that they'll figure it out," Evason said. "We trust that Marc-Andre Fleury will figure it out, too."