Marian Gaborik scored his first goal of the season in overtime, helping the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Wednesday night for their franchise-record sixth consecutive win.
Captain Brian Rolston scored the Wild's 1,000th regular-season goal in the first period.
Los Angeles tied the game at 18:26 of the same period on Patrick O'Sullivan's first NHL goal, which survived a video review.
The Kings dropped their fourth in a row, managing one goal in each of those defeats.
Pavol Demitra set up Gaborik's winner 25 seconds into overtime, skating up the right side and sending a pass to Gaborik, who was being closely chased by a Kings defender.
The puck careened off Gaborik's right skate as he approached the net, and the momentum carried it past Kings goalie Dan Cloutier, who stopped 25 shots in regulation. Demitra's assist gave him a point in all six games this season, and extended his assist streak to six games.
Wild goalie Manny Fernandez improved to 5-0-0, making 34 saves in regulation.
The Kings outshot the Wild 35-26 in regulation, and Minnesota, the NHL's top-rated power-play unit, finished 0-for-5.
Rolston's goal at 10:09 of the first period gave the Wild a 1-0 lead.
Notes: The Kings completed their season-opening seven-game
homestand with one sellout. Wednesday's announced crowd of 14,617
was the third time in five games that the team drew less than
15,000. ... The last time the Wild had won five in a row was last
January.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
