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Anze Kopitar reaches 1,200-point milestone as Kings thrash Wild

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LOS ANGELES — Kevin Fiala lit up his former team, Viktor Arvidsson scored in his first game back from injury, Andreas Englund backed up a big hit with a fight, the Kings built a 3-0 lead over the Minnesota Wild … and that all happened in the first period alone.

By the end of Wednesday night, the Kings had rolled to a 6-0 victory over a depleted Minnesota club that snapped its eight-game points streak with a loss in regulation at Crypto.com Arena. Both teams had won a night earlier, and the Kings have captured three of their past four games.

“We were ready to play, and we looked pretty good doing it, with Arvy back in and the full lineup and lots of energy,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “We got rewarded. We got a couple lucky goals, we understand that, but it just felt right.”

Kings captain Anze Kopitar’s assist was career point No. 1,200 and his goal was No. 1,201. Fiala, Arvidsson and Phillip Danault matched Kopitar’s contribution with a goal and an assist apiece. Matt Roy and Jordan Spence each added a goal from the blue line, where Drew Doughty chipped in the same two assists that Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe both did up front. David Rittich had 30 saves to earn his third shutout one night after Cam Talbot picked up a win in a romp over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Marc-Andre Fleury wobbled and also bore the brunt of the Wild’s tired legs, weary minds and bad bounces before being relieved by Filip Gustavsson. Minnesota was at the end of its road trip and without arguably its three best defensive players: center Joel Eriksson Ek as well as defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin. Brodin was injured in a 4-0 victory over the Ducks on Tuesday.

The Kings’ opening salvo began with a hit by Danault on the former Kings prospect at the center of the Fiala swap, defenseman and certain Calder Trophy finalist Brock Faber. As the Wild attempted to break out, Fiala disrupted Ryan Hartman’s pass with a deft defensive deflection that went to Moore. Moore promptly fired a shot that Danault tipped past Fleury 5:08 into the contest for his 17th goal of the season.

Englund and Jake Middleton scrapped in the middle of both the game and the ice after Englund had checked Marcus Johansson.

The Kings extended their lead on a power play that proved patience to be a virtue. Not only did they score with less than five seconds remaining on Minnesota’s minor penalty, but it was Fiala ignoring the pleas of “shoot!” from the crowd to make a pass, adjust his position, receive the puck anew, change his shooting angle and pick his spot against a highly vulnerable Fleury. It was goal No. 23 of the season for Fiala, with 4:57 to play in the period.

“Kevin’s always hungry, he wants to be an elite player, and he is an elite player,” Moore said of Fiala’s focus against his former cohorts.

Their next goal, 1:23 later, was as uplifting as it was fluky. Arvidsson, who missed 50 games to start the season (back surgery) as well as the past 14 (lower-body), scored his first goal of the campaign. He was trying to slide the puck across for Danault but Dakota Mermis, who was filling in for the injured Brodin, broke up the pass in fortuitous fashion for the Kings as the wayward puck slid between Fleury’s legs for a serendipitous score.

“It was amazing. It was a relief, and just a happy moment,” said Arvidsson, who confirmed that his recent injury was unrelated to his two back surgeries in less than two years. “My daughter was in the stands and it was just an awesome feeling.”

Momentum and puck luck alike carried over into the second period, when Quinton Byfield’s centering attempt was inadvertently rerouted by Faber’s skate, directly to the trailing Roy for his fourth goal of the season to make it 4-0 just 28 seconds into the frame.

They extended their lead with a second power-play goal at the 7:34 mark and a de facto man-advantage tally nearly 10 minutes afterward.

Spence went his first 54 games without a goal but scored his second in five days when Moore found him alone above the inside portion of the left circle. His far-side fling beat Fleury and chased him from the contest.

From the fourth goal of Spence’s career to old hat for one of the most prolific goalie-center tandems in NHL history, Doughty located a seam from the top of the circle to the right dot, where Kopitar was waiting to rip a kneeling one-timer past Gustavsson for a 6-0 advantage. Kopitar scored his 23rd goal just two seconds after Marcus Foligno’s penalty expired for Minnesota.

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Andrew Knoll

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