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Doughty helps Kings down Wings

Mar 14, 2012 - 5:52 AM Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Drew Doughty scored the game-winner in the second period as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2, at Staples Center.

Justin Williams, Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist apiece while Slava Voynov also scored for the Kings, who earned their second straight win. Jonathan Quick stopped 22 shots.

Jiri Hudler and Johan Franzen lit the lamp for Detroit, which lost for the fourth time in five games.

Jimmy Howard returned from a three-game absence because of a strained groin and allowed four goals on 26 shots.

"You are not going to win with the approach we had tonight," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. "The other team can't win all the battles, all of the races."

Los Angeles opened the scoring at the 6:48 mark of the first period when Doughty's wrister from the right point was stopped by Howard, but Williams was there to jam the puck through the goaltender's pads and across the goal line.

Then, with 6:45 left in the opening frame, Los Angeles added to its lead while shorthanded. After Kopitar grabbed an errant pass at his blue line and raced down the right side of the ice, he fired a wrister from the right circle that sailed into the far side of the net to make it a 2-0 game after one.

The Red Wings cut their deficit in half 4:06 into the second when Henrik Zetterberg fired a cross-ice pass to Hudler at the right circle, where he stopped the puck with his skate and kicked it to his stick before firing a hard wrister through the short side.

But the Kings regained their two-goal cushion just past the midpoint of the middle stanza when Doughty's shot from the high slot deflected off Detroit's Ian White in the slot and bounced past Howard.

The lead stretched to 4-1 at the 8:23 mark of the third while on the power play after Jarret Stoll sent a pass from the left corner through a crowd to the right of the net, where Voynov banked a shot in off the right pad of Howard as he went down to make the save.

Franzen cleaned up a rebound off a Brad Stuart slap shot from the right point with 6:30 left in the game to bring the Red Wings back within two, but Carter's empty-net goal within the final minute sealed the outcome.

"Our special team were good tonight," Kings head coach Darryl Sutter said. "We had a good first period and weathered the storm in the second. With a little bit of luck, you win the game."

Game Notes

Kings forward Dustin Brown had two assists to extend his points streak to nine games, tying his career high. He has five goals and nine assists in the streak...Detroit took the season series, 3-1...Howard fell to 9-3-0 against the Pacific Division this season...Los Angeles went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Detroit went scoreless in four power-play opportunities.