Kings burn Winged Wheels with rally, victory
NHL: L.A. comes back from two-goal deficit against Detroit to get some breathing room in Western Conference standings.
DETROIT – The Kings showed their mettle in a big game.
Brad Richardson's tiebreaking goal with 7:57 left capped Los Angeles' rally from a two-goal deficit and lifted the Kings to a 3-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
The Kings moved into a tie for sixth place in the Western Conference, three points ahead of eighth-place Detroit.
"It's a great feeling for this young group of guys to come in and play the Detroit Red Wings in a significant game that they came out on top in," Kings coach Terry Murray said.
Richardson added an assist, and Anze Kopitar had a goal and two assists for the Kings. Peter Harrold also scored, Wayne Simmonds had two assists, and Jonathan Quick made 31 saves.
"They're right behind us in the standings, and just to push them a little further down, it definitely makes a difference," Kopitar said. "Hopefully, it's going to pay off in the end."
Valtteri Filppula and Todd Bertuzzi scored for Detroit. Jimmy Howard stopped 30 shots.
"We had a good chance to gain a couple points on these guys, and after the first 10 minutes we stopped skating," Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "We got outworked. The whole second period it felt like we spent in our zone."
Richardson tipped in his seventh goal of the season on Scott Parse's cross-crease pass for the winner. "Great play by Parse," Murray said. "Simply go to the net and keep your stick on the ice."
Harrold tied it 2-all 6:27 into the third period with a wrist shot from the slot. It was Harrold's first goal of the season.
"Everybody was piled up in front," he said. "There was a lot of net on the left side, so I just floated it in there."
Kopitar put the Kings on the board 1:55 into the second period when he put a loose puck in the crease into an empty net for his 20th goal.
"We just kind of threw it on the net, and Richie got the rebound and was able to chip it over him," Kopitar said. "We were there."
The goal was the result of Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson's giveaway in his own zone.
Filppula opened the scoring 5:29 in with his fifth goal. Bertuzzi made it 2-0 about 2 minutes later with a 5-on-3 goal.
Man found in rafters
An unidentified man was taken down from a conduit above a catwalk during the game. Almost an entire section of stands in the lower bowl of Joe Louis Arena was cleared out when the man was noticed during the second period.
After he was removed from the area, fans were allowed to return to their seats.
"We didn't know what was going on until somebody pointed it out," Lidstrom said.
Photographers have remote cameras stationed on the catwalk, but no one is usually there during games.
"He got in through one of the storage cages and came out through one of the cable traps used for show cables," arena audio engineer Ricky Gopigian said.
The players were certainly surprised.
"I don't know what the guy was trying to do or anything," Kopitar said. "It's the first time I've seen that." ———
KINGS 3, DETROIT 2