L.A Kings Best the Detroit Red Wings in Spirited Contest

The Detroit Red Wings showed up to the Staples Center with some determination and if you are Nick Jensen or Tyler Bertuzzi, in a bad mood.

The Detroit Red Wings squared off with the L.A Kings late last evening on the first game of a back to back quick two-game road trip. I don’t know precisely who creates the NHL schedule, but they ship the Wings way out west for back to back nights and then have them come home. They should have thrown in a Sharks game while they are out there.

Anyhow the Wings battling the Quick-less Kings carried the pace of play for the majority of the game but still came up short. The Wings would outshoot the Kings 38-25 but lose 4-2.

Anze Kopitar scored on a video game type backhander. Kopitar received an Ilya Kovalchuk pass just inside of the Detroit Red Wings blue line and caught Libor Sulak flat-footed. He would glide around Sulak who falls to a knee and wave his stick out at Anze to little or no effect. Kopitar roofed the backhander over the shoulder of sprawling Jonathan Bernier.

Anthony Mantha would record his first goal of the season on a Detroit Red Wings power play. Andreas Athanasiou and Dennis Cholowski would each tally an assist on the goal. It was sort of a fluke goal. Mantha seemed to be firing a pass across to either Thomas Vanek in the slot or Dylan Larkin streaking towards the far side. The pass/shot got deflected and ended up cruising past the toe of Jack Campbell into the bottom corner of the goal.

Dylan Larkin recorded a power-play goal late in the third, guess who recorded an assist? Yep, Cholowski. The kid has made a great impression early on in the season and has had a positive impact on the first two games. Nyquist recorded a helper on the goal as well.

Libor Sulak and Dennis Cholowski showed up for the kids last night. Both defenders played very well against the “heavy” Kings. The Kings have many big bodies who are not afraid to rattle the boards, and the kids stood up to the test mentally and physically. Filip Hronek showed a willingness to mix it up but took an ill-advised penalty late in the third period leaving Wings down to four defenders.

Trevor Daley left the game in the first period after getting tangled up in the neutral zone with Kings forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Anderson Dolan fell over Daley and looked to knee him in the head. Daley needed assistance off the ice and seemed quite wobbly; he would not return.

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Tyler Bertuzzi was playing the “pest” role all evening long. He was continually getting under Dion Phaneuf‘s skin all night long. Nick Jensen who I admit before the game I wanted Joe Hicketts to remain in the Detroit Red Wings lineup in favor of, played well.

Jensen was willing to pinch in and create a couple of offensive opportunities for his club. Jensen would get into a spirited tilt with Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin. Jensen by all accounts won the scrap. Jensen was sticking up for Bertuzzi who got leveled by Muzzin in the Detroit corner.

A clean hit by all accounts but Nick Jensen took exception. Jensen played a lot more aggressive than he has in the past. He played like he didn’t want to continue to be a healthy scratch.

Andreas Athanasiou played well but had a clear-cut breakaway and deked the puck into the corner without recording a shot. Jonathan Bernier had a Red Wings debut to forget. He allowed a sharp-angled shot squeak though, and another goal was on a giveaway he started from behind his net.

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The Detroit Red Wings will be taking on the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow; it seems they may be quite thin on the backend tomorrow adding Daley to the already existing Red Wings list of injuries.

Key Stats:

Cholowski 2 assists, 24:50 TOI
Larkin goal, 20:21 TOI
Mantha goal, 19:09 TOI
Nyquist assist, 18:40 TOI
AA assist, 20:00 TOI
Honorable mention: Jensen 22:51 TOI, Sulak 22:17 TOI, DeKeyser 24:31 TOI
Bernier 21 saves, 3 goals allowed

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