DETROIT (AP) — Nic Dowd had a tie-breaking goal late in the second period and Tyler Toffoli scored twice in the third, lifting the Los Angeles Kings to a 4-1 victory over Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.
Derek Forbort scored 21 seconds into the game on the Kings’ first shot and Dowd scored off his own rebound with 17 seconds left in the second period. Toffoli scored with 6:10 left in the game, giving Los Angeles a two-goal cushion that was safe against a team that is struggling to score and he added an empty-net goal with 3:34 to go.
The offensively challenged Red Wings had two shots in the first, their lowest total for any period this season and added just six more in the second.
Jeff Zatkoff made 17 saves for the Kings. Detroit’s Jimmy Howard stopped 27 shots.
Forbort put the Kings ahead soon after the puck dropped, shooting through traffic and past Howard. A few minutes later, it looked like they were going to take a two-goal lead on Anze Kopitar’s shot that hit off the left post and caromed off the right post just outside of the goal line. The referee’s decision on the ice up held after video review.
Detroit’s Mike Green made it 1-all with 7:13 left in the first period, taking advantage of a perfectly placed pass in front of the net by Luke Glendening, who created space behind the net by stopping quickly with the puck in the corner and reversing the direction he was skating.
The Red Wings, though, could not generate much more offense during a game in which they gave up goals over the first two periods to players who had combined to score just three goals over the first two months of the season. They came close to scoring midway through the third period when Gustav Nyquist drew iron on a shot.
Detroit has lost four straight, all at home, and has scored no more than one goal in a game during the slump.
The Kings had dropped three of four.
NOTES: Los Aneles ended a seven-game losing streak against the Red Wings. … The Kings scratched F Devin Setoguci, F Andy Andreoff and D Kevin Gravel. … Detroit scratched D Alexey Marchenko, D Brian Lashoff and F Tomas Jurco.
UP NEXT
Kings: Play at Pittsburgh on Friday night, the third game in their nine-game trip that lasts two-plus weeks.
Red Wings: Host Anaheim, their fifth and final game of a home stand before playing 10 of 11 games on the road.
