The Detroit Red Wings have certainly played more complete games this season but still were able to fend off the L.A Kings to notch their 14th victory of the season.
The Detroit Red Wings were heavily outshot by the Kings but find a way to win behind a stellar performance from Jimmy Howard.
The Wings carried the play for most of the first period although they were outshot 10-8. Dennis Cholowski scored a beautiful top-shelf goal. The play started in the Wings defensive zone when a pair of Kings went to Trevor Daley in the corner. He reversed play to Dennis Cholowski who head-manned the rush up ice for the Detroit Red Wings.
The play ended with a beautiful top-shelf short-side goal with assists from Ehn and de La Rose. It would be Cholowski’s fifth goal of the season. The kid continues to spew confidence night in and night out. Tonight he primarily played paired with Trevor Daley. It was Daley’s first game over the last six games, so Blashill wanted to take some pressure off Daley playing him on the third pairing. Prior to his injury, he was playing with Mike Green on the Wings top pairing.
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In the second period, the Detroit Red Wings found themselves like they often do in the second period of games, chasing! Despite being outshot to the tune of 14-9, the Wings managed to net two more goals extending their lead to three.
Frans Nielsen took a shot from the right-winged circle, and the puck bounced back to him being a left-handed shot he was able to fire his own rebound far side beating Quick. Dylan Larkin though, oh boy, what a goal he had.
Larks carried the puck into the Kings zone off of the left-wing side. He sent the puck in deep around the end boards. The Kings defender retrieved the puck and tried to send the puck up the middle of his own zone when Dylan Larkin intercepted the puck with a head of steam.
Standout defender Drew Doughty tried to change direction in a hurry but slipped after realizing the turnover and stumbled to the ice leaving Quick and Lakin one-on-one. Larks deked Quick into no man’s land, netting a highlight reel goal. Larkin extends his point streak to four games, and the future captain is leading this group quite nicely.
Jimmy Howard would give up one goal late, but he was absolutely fantastic. He had a week off, apparently, Jeff Blashill wanted Howie to be refreshed after a few games off. It worked, Howard was brilliant making 42 saves. The Wings were nearly doubled in shots but win the game 3-1. Howard posted a beautiful .977 save percentage tonight.
The Detroit Red Wings won’t have much time to enjoy this one as they have a challenging task ahead, taking on the defending champs in Washington tomorrow night.