Kings continue to spiral, falling to Red Wings for their eighth straight loss
DETROIT — Dylan Larkin had two goals and the Detroit Red Wings handed the Kings their eighth consecutive loss with a 5-3 victory on Saturday night.
Robby Fabbri, Patrick Kane and Andrew Copp also scored as the Red Wings improved to 4-0-1 in their last five games. Alex Lyon made 33 saves.
“We had a tough, tough stretch before Christmas, but we weren’t totally out of [the playoff race],” Larkin said. “We had a great trip out West, we came home and played hard against Edmonton and that was one of our better performances tonight.”
Detroit grabbed control by scoring four times in the last 11 minutes of the second period. The Red Wings also beat the Kings 4-3 in a shootout on Jan. 4 at Crypto.com Arena.
The Kings are mired in a seven-game losing streak that has the entire team searching for answers, but a solution to their woes isn’t out of reach.
“Coming out like that and getting that good of a start through two periods was absolutely ideal,” Kane said.
The Kings dropped to 0-2-2 on a six-game trip. Their last win was a 5-1 victory over San José on Dec. 27.
Quinton Byfield had two power-play goals for the Kings, and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored with the man advantage. Anze Kopitar, who has 50 points in 45 career games against the Red Wings, collected two assists.
Kings goalie Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots before he was replaced by David Rittich in the third period. Rittich made three saves.
Larkin scored his 15th goal when he lifted a shot from the left side that snuck inside the crossbar 2:44 into the game.
Byfield tied it at 1 when he scored from close range 6:58 into the first. It was his 11th of the season.
Detroit regained the lead when it converted a five-on-three power play midway through the second period. Larkin knocked in a rebound of a Kane shot.
Fabbri made it 3-1 with 3:38 left in the second, jamming in a rebound of a Daniel Sprong shot. Kane scored just over a minute later on a breakaway.
The Kings’ Phillip Danault had an apparent goal wiped out by a coach’s challenge.
Copp scored on a tip-in with 12.5 seconds remaining, lifting Detroit to a four-goal advantage. It was Copp’s seventh of the season.
Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde was impressed with his team’s defense during the first two periods.
“Our five-on-five defending has been much better in this stretch,” he said. “We still have some things to fix in our game, but in the first 40 minutes, they might have had two or three chances at even strength.”
Detroit matched the season high for goals allowed by the Kings in regulation.
“ ‘Woe was us’ was our theme song after the second, but the tenacity in the third showed up,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “That was a positive sign, if we’re going to take anything out of it.”
Dubois and Byfield cashed in on power plays during the first six minutes of the third.
“It’s hard to be in this situation,” Kopitar said. “But then again, it’s going to be everybody that’s going to pull us out of this situation. The third period is a good indicator of what we have to do.”
Up next for the Kings: at Carolina on Monday.
