Kings defeat Wild in shootout

ST. PAUL, MINN — The Kings are fighting hard to stay in the playoff picture and will take wins any way they can get them.

Drew Doughty scored the deciding shootout goal and the Kings beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1, on Tuesday night.

The shootout was tied, 1-1, after three rounds and Doughty scored the winner on the Kings’ fourth shot. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick denied Brent Burns, the Wild’s final shooter, to seal the win.

Doughty didn’t get much of a shot off against Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom, but the puck somehow trickled into the net.

The Kings’ regulation goal was knocked in by a Wild defender and the Kings escaped with two points.

“We wanted to win that game no matter how we were going to win it,” Doughty said.

Minnesota is 4-2 in shootouts and the Kings are 4-7.

Jack Johnson got credit for the Kings’ goal and Antii Miettinen scored for the Wild in regulation.

Miettinen scored a short-handed goal for the Wild in the second period. Mikko Koivu assisted on the two-on-one break for his 55th point this season, a career high.

Giving up a short-handed goal is tough to overcome, but the Kings came right back at the Wild.

“It’s down to crunch time for everybody in the game now,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said. “So play and lock away all the bad things that happened and come back with a solid shift after that. We responded. It was good.”

Johnson was credited with a goal 10 minutes later to tie the score. However, it was Minnesota’s Kim Johnsson who put the puck in the net. After a scrum in front, Johnsson mistakenly poked the puck past Backstrom.

“I think we got lucky on it,” Murray said. “To me it looked like it was just a clearing attempt by the defenseman and we got a lucky bounce on it.”

The Kings had lost three in a row, but are 9-4-2 in their last 15 games.