LOS ANGELES — Myriad aspiring entertainers will tell you that Hollywood can be a hard place to find success. That is especially true for the Wild of late. For some reason, the home of the Los Angeles Kings continues to be a place where nothing comes easy for the visitors from Minnesota.

On Monday, the Kings got a pair of goals late in the second period, then held off a comeback effort by the visitors. When the final horn blew, the Kings had posted a 4-2 win to sweep a two-game series and hand Minnesota its first loss in regulation since before Christmas.

Minnesota Wild right wing Danila Yurov, front right, and Los Angeles Kings right wing Adrian Kempe (9) fight as defenseman Drew Doughty, back left, and additional players fight during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)

Minnesota has now lost, either in overtime or in regulation, in six of its last seven visits to downtown Los Angeles.

Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson did what he could, keeping the home team off the scoreboard for the first 35 minutes of the game while not getting goal support despite a trio of Wild power plays in the first two periods. He finished with 30 saves while Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman scored for the Wild.

“It was a tough game. They had a lot of chances. And we’ve been scoring a lot lately, and today we couldn’t outscore them,” Gustavsson said, with the Wild playing their third game in four nights. “I should probably have save(d) that first one and the third one. And still we’re right in it there until the end.”

Los Angeles finally broke a scoreless deadlock late in the middle period when Warren Foegele sailed a shot through a mess of bodies in front of the Wild net and hit the top corner over Gustavsson’s right shoulder. Marcus Foligno, who had blocked a shot earlier in the shift, left the game for a time but returned in the third.

After former Wild standout Kevin Fiala fought off a challenge from Minnesota defender Matt Kiersted to make it 2-0, Spurgeon made it a one-goal game with a long-range shot through traffic in the third.

But the momentum was fleeting, as Andrei Kuzmenko scored on a pretty weave to the net, tucking the puck past Gustavsson.

“I thought in the second we just had some shifts that we got caught in our zone,” Spurgeon said. “That really took away from the rhythm of the game that we usually play with and then obviously they get a goal there later in the period to get up one and then I thought we did a good job of trying to battle back in the third and then just got chances on the power that we couldn’t convert it.”

Minnesota got the game’s first power play and came within an inch of taking the lead when a pretty backhander by Joel Eriksson Ek eluded the Kings goalie’s left shoulder but hit the post and sailed out of danger.

The Kings’ best chance at a first-period lead came late , when a defensive miscue left Los Angeles with two players uncovered in front of the Minnesota net. But Gustavsson made the save and steered the puck to the corner, and the game reached the first intermission with nothing on the scoreboard.

Up 3-1 in the third, the Kings briefly appeared to make it 4-1, but after consulting, officials ruled no goal as the puck was kicked in by Los Angeles forward Quinton Byfield. Instead, the Wild got a four-minute power play when former Hill-Murray standout Mikey Anderson caught Marcus Johansson under the visor with a high stick. Johansson left the game bleeding, aided by trainers.

Hartman scored on the power play, the first in six man advantage situations on Monday.

“It went one for six. We definitely need to generate more,” Wild coach John Hynes said of the power play. “But I will say we scored one, Ekky hits the post. We had a couple other looks. I thought (Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper) did a really good job at the net. There wasn’t a lot of rebounds. And he ate some pucks there. So although it was a big factor in the game of why we didn’t win it. But I will say that we did have some looks. But when you have that many, you either have to score or generate more than we did.”

But with Gustavsson on the bench for an extra attacker, Adrian Kempe’s empty net goal sealed the result.

Kuemper finished with 32 saves for Los Angeles, as Minnesota fell to 3-1-2 on their current road trip.

Los Angeles lost veteran forward Anze Kopitar to a lower body injury in the game. It was a big loss for the Kings, as Kopitar — who will retire at the end of this season — was playing his 71st game versus Minnesota and has been a Wild-killer since entering the NHL in 2006 with 61 career points.

The Wild’s marathon seven-game road trip reaches the finish line on Thursday night in Seattle when they make their second, and final, visit to Climate Pledge Arena this season. Minnesota won 4-1 there on Dec. 8.

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