Red Wings Blow Three-Goal Lead, Fall to Kings

A three-goal lead after the first period wasn’t enough for the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday as they allowed four unanswered goals in the final forty minutes of play and lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3.

It was the ninth consecutive win for the Kings, a franchise record.

Alexander Frolov started the LA comeback at 9:16 of the second period. Detroit defender Brad Stuart sent a bad outlet pass from behind the Red Wings’ goal straight into Kings’ posession and Frolov drove to the net, banging a rebound past goalie Jimmy Howard.

A turnover by Howard led to the Kings’ second goal with 5:13 left in the period. The puck came to the side of the Detroit net on a dump-in and Howard came out to play it. He couldn’t control the puck and Michal Handzus raced it, swatting it into the net.

Just 1:34 later, Ryan Smyth tipped a the puck in from the front of the net to tie the game.

After the Red Wings controlled the first fifteen minutes of the third period without a goal, Los Angeles took the lead when Handzus cut across the top of the crease and put a shot around Howard with 2:11 remaining.

The Red Wings had opened the game’s scoring at 8:44 of the first period, when Henrik Zetterberg took a centering pass from Pavel Datsyuk and tipped a shot into the open side of the Kings’ net, past goaltender Jonathan Quick.

Just 16 seconds later, Valtteri Filppula put a shot on goal that deflected off of an LA defenseman and past Quick for a 2-0 lead.

Zetterberg added Detroit’s third goal with five seconds remaining in the period, swatting a rebound chance over the sprawling Quick.

Neither team scored a power play goal in the game. Detroit had four tries with the extra attacker while Los Angeles had three.

Howard stopped 23 of 27 shots against. Quick made 20 saves on 23 Detroit chances.

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The Red Wings lost Tomas Holmstrom to a bruised knee after the first period. Patrick Eaves and Drew Miller left the game after the second with ankle injuries after blocking shots.