Wild loses 1-0 to Kings, Kirill Kaprizov ejected for high stick to opponent's face

LOS ANGELES — The Wild finished yet another game down a forward, but this time injury wasn't the reason why.

Kirill Kaprizov was ejected late in the second period after cross-checking the Kings' Drew Doughty in the face, a whack that could receive further discipline from the NHL, and the shorthanded Wild were blanked 1-0 on Tuesday in front of 13,558 at Crypto.com Arena to suffer back-to-back shutouts.

Their goalless drought is up to 123 minutes, 8 seconds.

"How about a couple power plays for our team?" coach Dean Evason said. "I mean, one power play. Are you kidding me? And it was a token power play. It's unbelievable."

Unlike the Wild, Los Angeles had four tries on the power play but the Kings' lone goal came at even strength — a one-timer by Gabriel Vilardi with 6:03 remaining in the third period.

"I didn't see the guy's release, and then it was in the net," said goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who turned aside 29 other shots.

Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots for his first shutout of the season, and that output by the Wild is a season low and one less than the 22 shots they registered in a 4-0 loss to the Kraken last Thursday. None of their shots came on their only power play, which arrived late in the second period on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Brendan Lemieux.

"We don't want to whine, but it's a joke that we have one power play and it's for their guy holding our guy at the penalty box," Evason said. "So, thank you. We got mauled at the end. We're trying to score. We're trying to get in, and the whistle's gone. There's no more calls."

The biggest call of the night came with 5:12 left in the second when Kaprizov was assessed a major and match penalty for leveling Doughty.

Before that, the two were tangled up in a board battle that saw Kaprizov get taken down to the ice by Doughty, but the play wasn't whistled down.

"He's getting cross-checked and mauled. He's frustrated, right?" Evason said. "We're all frustrated because it's not taken care of. There's rules, and obviously we feel that there should be some more penalties called on a player of his stature who has the puck all the time. It's not happening."

A match penalty is called against a player "who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner," according to the NHL rulebook. As a result, Kaprizov is automatically suspended pending a league review.

With the Wild back in action Wednesday at Anaheim, a decision is expected before that game.

It's possible the winger doesn't receive any additional punishment. Kaprizov has no suspension history in his NHL career.

"The way that we saw it, he hit him with his glove," Evason said. "That's what we saw."

Already, the Wild are without forwards Brandon Duhaime, Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman because of upper-body injuries. Jordan Greenway did return against the Kings after missing seven games because of a shoulder injury. Foligno is on the three-game road trip, which concludes Friday at Seattle.

After Kaprizov exited, Los Angeles received a five-minute power play but failed to convert.

"It's an emotional game right?" Fleury said. "Some stuff happens. I'm sure [Kaprizov] didn't mean to get him in the face like that. Everybody wanted to kill that [penalty] for him. He's been so good for our team. I'm glad we did."

Credit Fleury, who stopped four shots, but the Wild penalty killers were also locked in; they blocked six shots, with captain Jared Spurgeon getting in front of two pucks near the end of the Kings' advantage. The Wild ended the night with 22 blocks.

"That's a team that shoots a lot from the point and always has traffic in front, so it makes it hard for the goalie to see and then they tip a lot of pucks," Fleury said. "When your guys stop them and clear the rebounds away, it's a big help for me."

That set up a make-or-break third period, and the Kings delivered the decisive play.

Not since the waning minutes of the third period of a 4-1 win vs. the Canadiens on Nov. 1 have the Wild scored, a goal by Matt Boldy.

"We gotta have some balance to what we're doing," Evason said. "You can't go through a game like that and have one power play. There's no way. No way. So, that doesn't help our offensive production.

"We had lots of opportunities 5-on-5 to create goals and opportunities. But our power play needs a chance to get us going, and they didn't give us an opportunity."