Young goalie stifles Kings

ST. PAUL, MINN. —  Minnesota’s third-string goalie, Josh Harding, turned in a strong performance to help the Wild beat the Kings, 4-1, on Saturday night and stretch its franchise-best winning streak to nine games.

Minnesota sneaked past idle Vancouver into first place in the Northwest Division, though the Canucks have played two fewer games. With 97 points, the Wild established a franchise record and reached the fourth-highest total in the conference.

Dustin Brown scored for the Kings, who have been eliminated from the playoff chase but entered the game 4-1-1 in their previous six games. Goalie Mathieu Garon’s four-game winning streak ended. He made 19 saves in a game full of yapping, scrapping and a late fight between each team’s specialist -- Derek Boogaard for Minnesota and Raitis Ivanans for the Kings.

“I thought we generated a lot,” Kings Coach Marc Crawford said. “The difference in the game was their goalie was better than ours. He preserved a victory for them.”

Harding made 32 saves against the Kings and was especially stout in the second period, coming up with several close saves with his team struggling.

The Wild was outshot, 9-3, in the second period.

“They could have come back at any time,” Wild Coach Jacques Lemaire said.

But 22-year-old Harding didn’t let that happen. He improved to 3-0-1 since his promotion from the minors when original starter Manny Fernandez first sprained his left knee.