Red Wings Blow Two-goal Lead, Fall to Kings, 3-2

The Detroit Red Wings had a two-goal lead less than halfway through the first period Saturday night but couldn’t hold onto it, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Los Angeles Kings.

Valtteri Filppula walked in untouched on Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick, beating him with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle at 5:29 of the first to open the scoring.

Just 2:02 later, a Brian Rafalski shot bounced off Todd Bertuzzi’s knee and went past Quick on a five-on-three to put the Red Wings up by a pair.

The rest of the game would be all Los Angeles, however.

Anze Kopitar beat Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard on a rebound chance after a turnover by Jonathan Ericsson only 1:55 into the second period.

Peter Harrold tied it up at 6:27 of the third, then Brad Richardson put the Kings in front with 7:57 remaining, tipping in a chance from the slot.

The loss leaves the Red Wings three points behind the Kings in the standings and drops them back out of a playoff spot.

Howard made 30 saves on the night, facing 33 Kings chances. Quick stopped 31 of 33 Detroit shots.

The Red Wings went 1-for-3 on the power play while the Kings were scoreless in the same number of chances with the extra attacker.

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Three fans made their way into the Joe Louis Arena rafters over section 124 at the start of the third period. The section was evactuated while security handled the situation.