St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Michal Handzus notched the winner in the fifth round of the shootout as Los Angeles edged Minnesota, 3-2, at Xcel Energy Center.
Handzus opened the fifth and final round by working around a pokecheck from Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom and scoring on the forehand inside the left post.
Antti Miettinen could have extended the contest but his backhand offering at the right post was halted by a sprawling Jonathan Quick.
Anze Kopitar notched a goal and an assist for the Kings, who got a score from Jarret Stoll and 20 saves from Quick in regulation. Los Angeles improved to 2-1 on its current five-game road trip and has won five of its last six overall.
John Madden and Nick Schultz tallied for the Wild, who have dropped two in a row. Backstrom stopped 32-of-34 shots in defeat.
Madden was alone in front to chip the rebound of a Clayton Stoner shot over Quick for a 1-0 Wild edge at 5:52 of the opening period.
Schultz doubled the edge on his first goal of the season, scoring with a wrister than changed direction in traffic at 7:42.
Despite missing prime chances on a pair of 2-on-1 breaks, the Kings halved their deficit when Stoll's left-circle wrister on a power play rippled the net at 18:37.
Minnesota failed to capitalize on a five-minute power play granted at the 8:12 mark of the second period when the Kings' Dustin Brown was given a major and a game misconduct for an illegal check to the head of Wild forward Miettinen.
Los Angeles managed to tie the game with another late power-play score, this time with 18 seconds left in the second as Kopitar gathered in Jack Johnson's point shot and flipped the rebound in from the left circle.
Quick and Backstrom combined to stop all 17 shots fired their way in the third period and overtime.
Los Angeles has won four of its last five games at Minnesota since the start of the 2008-09 season...Prior to the game, the Kings announced that defenseman Drew Doughty was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and recalled defenseman Jake Muzzin from Manchester of the AHL...LA continues its trip on Wednesday at Chicago, and Minnesota hosts Washington on Thursday...The Kings have won both of their shootouts this year, while the Wild have dropped both of their shootout tries.