Former teammate Kevin Fiala, Kings cool Wild’s hot start with 5-1 victory; Kirill Kaprizov struck in face by puck

Kirill Kaprizov left the game injured, and the Wild’s momentum went with him.

After dominating the puck and possession for a period and a half, the Wild crumbled the rest of the way for a 5-1 collapse to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center that ended their three-game winning streak with only their second regulation loss of the season.

Overall, they are 8-2-2, which is still good enough to be tied for third in the NHL.

“That’s a tough one,” Wild winger Mats Zuccarello said. “But we’re going to lose this year, and hopefully it’s a one-off and then we can get back on the horse again. But, yeah, obviously we weren’t happy about that game.”

Kevin Fiala turned the tables on his former team, igniting Los Angeles’ comeback with a familiar, sizzling shot from outside the left faceoff circle on the power play that gave the Kings a 2-1 lead with 65 seconds left in the second period before they tacked on three more goals in the third.

Also give credit to Los Angeles goalie David Rittich, who finished with 23 saves and prevented the Wild from running away early.

The Wild certainly had enough pressure in the first period to sink the Kings into a hole, but they didn’t capitalize until their 12th attempt on net at 7:31 of the second, a seeing-eye shot Zach Bogosian sent past a Marcus Foligno screen for Bogosian’s first goal of the season.

BOXSCORE: Los Angeles 5, Wild 1

That was the ninth time the Wild have scored first, which is tied with the New Jersey Devils for the league lead, but this was their first regulation loss after leading 1-0.

They began to lose control after Kaprizov took a puck to the face off the stick of Los Angeles’ Alex Laferriere following a faceoff at 12:09. Kaprizov fell to the ice before getting up and immediately going down the tunnel away from the bench while holding his face, the winger leaving drops of blood on the ice.

While juggling their lines in Kaprizov’s absence, the Wild lost their rhythm and that opened the door for the Kings to rally after shaking off a stale start that looked indicative of Los Angeles playing the previous night in Nashville.

“We had a bit of trouble getting the puck up the ice with speed,” Bogosian said. “I thought our breakouts probably weren’t as clean as we would’ve liked, and that kind of ruins the flow.”

The Kings had only two shots in the first period and were stuck on five until Warren Foegele backhanded in a loose puck at 14:30 of the second after Laferriere had the initial shot against Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson.

“We go for a wholesale line change, and, bang, it’s in the back of our net,” coach John Hynes said. “I thought that turned the tide a little bit.”

Then 4:25 later, Fiala converted while Marco Rossi was in the penalty box for hooking, with Laferriere also setting up this goal.

The Wild went the final 9:30 of the second without registering a shot and entered the third period behind for the first time this season.

As for Fiala, he’s up to three goals and six assists in seven games against the Wild since the team traded him to Los Angeles in 2022 for Brock Faber and a first-round draft pick that the Wild used on Liam Ohgren.

That was the Kings’ only look on the power play, while the Wild went 0-for-4 to continue their funk. They are in a 0-for-14 drought.

“Our power play was not good,” Zuccarello said. “Hasn’t been good in a while.”

Kaprizov was back for the third period, with stitches and a fat lip, but his return didn’t spark a comeback as Los Angeles effectively protected its lead by withstanding the Wild’s offensive chances and getting its own opportunities — like when Trevor Lewis buried his own rebound at 7:39 of the third.

Quinton Byfield added another goal on a deflection at 14:12, and Lewis scored his second into an empty net with 3:46 to go.

“We didn’t wear them down [Tuesday] physically as much as we probably could have,” Bogosian said. “In turn, they battled through.”

This was Kaprizov’s second consecutive game without a point and third overall. His 21 points are still tied atop the NHL with Colorado’s Cale Makar and Florida’s Sam Reinhart.

Gustavsson had 23 saves while dropping to 6-2-1.

Next up for the Wild is a three-game road trip, beginning Thursday at San Jose, which gives them a change of scenery to reset after a rare dud.

“You’re not gonna be perfect every night,” Faber said. “Obviously, you hate those and that’s frustrating. But at the same time, it’s a game that needs to happen. It keeps us level-headed, and it gives us that much more motivation going into this road trip.”