Red Wings build big early lead, hold on to beat Kings

Detroit – It got a little more interesting than anyone would have expected after the first period, but the Red Wings earned another victory Friday over a quality opponent.

They defeated the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings 5-2, thanks to four first-period goals that had the Kings reeling.

The Kings chipped away, and had an opportunity to get within a goal when Dustin Brown had a penalty shot just less than three minutes into the third period.

But Jimmy Howard made the stop on his one-time youth hockey teammate in upstate New York, keeping the score 4-2.

"I told myself, 'This could be the game,' " Howard said. "'Come up with a save here and it could be a good thing for us.' "

And it was, keeping the Red Wings lead at two and stalling the Kings' sudden momentum, after Tyler Toffoli's short-handed goal cut the lead to 4-2.

"Huge," Wings coach Mike Babcock said of Howard's penalty shot-stop. "We had just given up a shorty, and giving up a second one … It was a huge save."

Pavel Datsyuk's empty-net goal, his second goal of the game, at 18:50 of the third period made it 5-2.

Gustav Nyquist had two first-period power-play goals, while Datsyuk and Tomas Tatar had the others in the first period, as the Red Wings jumped on a sluggish Kings team playing its third road game in four nights.

"We talked about that, playing back-to-back your legs aren't going from the start," Nyquist said. "We needed to get to them right away. It was a good start for us."

The only negative of the evening was an ankle injury suffered by defenseman Kyle Quincey in the first period.

Quincey didn't return after playing just over three minutes and six shifts in the first period. Coach Mike Babcock said the team will know the severity of the injury Saturday.

Alec Martinez (Rochester Hills) and Toffoli (short-handed) scored for the Kings.

The victory was the third in four games for the Red Wings (6-2-2, 14 points), who closed out the month of October probably much better than anyone could have expected.

"We're doing a great job with the schedule we've had and what we've done in the standings," Howard said. "But no letups. We've given away some points this month, too, so we have a lot to learn and build off."

The Kings (6-3-2, 14 points) have lost three consecutive games, after winning six in a row.

After struggling this entire season on the power play, the Red Wings have now scored three power-play goals in the last two games.

Nyquist had two of them in the first period.

Nyquist opened the scoring with a goal at 5:51, capping a tic-tac-toe passing play with Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall. Zetterberg found Nyquist between the hashmarks, and Nyquist one-timed a shot past Jonathan Quick.

Datsyuk pushed the lead to 2-0 at 9:42 with his third goal in three games.

The play was all Datsyuk, lifting the stick of Dwight King and stealing the puck, then whirling around and banking the puck off Jake Muzzin and past Quick.

Nyquist made it 3-0 with his seventh goal at 11:44.

Kronwall shot a puck off the end boards, the puck coming to Nyquist at the side of the net. Nyquist easily banged in the rebound.

"We really attacked the net," Babcock said. "The power play looked good."

Nyquist continued his first-period surge, setting up Tatar to make it 4-0 at 15:28.

Handling the puck behind the net, Nyquist backhanded a pass to Tatar, who was alone at the side of the net.

Needing any sort of spark the Kings finally got one from Martinez, scoring his first goal of the season.

Martinez drove to the net and Howard made the stop, only to have Mike Richards poke the puck free into the slot.

Diving, Martinez backhanded the puck past Howard at 10:41 of the second period.

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

twitter.com/tkulfan