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Frolov, Kings rally past Red Wings

Feb 8, 2008 - 5:10 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Alexander Frolov and the lowly Los Angeles Kings rallied in the final period to post an improbable win.

Frolov scored a goal and set up two others as the Kings tallied four times in the third period to post a 5-3 victory over the mighty Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Blue-liner Brad Stuart scored the game-winning goal and All-Star Anze Kopitar added an insurance tally for Los Angeles, which snapped Detroit's eight-game winning streak.

"We played very well all night, and we deserved to win," said Kings coach Marc Crawford, whose team had lost 16 of its previous 17 meetings with the Red Wings. "We were a much better team tonight than Detroit. That's no disrespect to them - everyone knows that's a great team - but we really challenged them."

"It's always great when you can come back and win a game in the third period, but it's much better when you can do it on the road against the best team in the league," Stuart added.

The Kings also were forced to overcome a two-goal performance by Red Wings All-Star Henrik Zetterberg.

After Patrick O'Sullivan cut Los Angeles' deficit to 3-2 when he knocked in a rebound 39 seconds into the third period, the Kings took control the rest of the way.

Frolov scored the equalizer on the power play, as he received a pass from Kyle Calder at the left faceoff dot and wristed a shot past All-Star goaltender Chris Osgood at 6:15, knotting the contest at 3-3.

"When that team is up two (goals) after the second period, they're going to win most of the time," O'Sullivan said. "It's rare for a team to come back like we did, but we got the early goal and we just kept rolling."

"They got a real early goal there (in the third), and that's one thing we didn't want to happen," Zetterberg said. "After that, they kind of took over the momentum and scored another one on the power play. After that, it was tough for us to get back."

Less than seven minutes later, Stuart also scored with a man advantage when he rifled a shot through traffic and past Osgood from 63 feet out, giving Los Angeles its first lead of the game with 6:53 remaining. Kopitar tallied 92 seconds later to create a two-goal bulge for the Kings, who recorded their first win in four tries against the Red Wings this season.

"I think sometimes things start slipping on you, and we were able to let things slip for a couple periods in other games and then pull them out," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We had no magic left, obviously. Two of the goals early in the game were good breaks for us, really.

"I thought their team won more battles and got more pucks to the net. Their power play was better than our penalty kill, and their penalty kill was better than our power play."

Calder, a former Red Wing, also scored and Jason LaBarbera stopped 26 shots for the Kings, who improved to 3-1-1 on their eight-game road trip.

Zetterberg recorded his fifth multi-goal game of the season in the losing effort. The Swede capped the effort with 6:55 left in the second period, when he received a pass in the slot from Daniel Cleary and circled behind the net before jamming the puck between the left skate of LaBarbera and the right goalpost.

The tally gave Detroit a 3-1 lead.

Tomas Kopecky scored the game's first goal and Osgood made 20 saves for Detroit, which lost for the first time since January 15 against Atlanta.

The Kings improved to 4-25-2 when trailing after two periods, while the Red Wings fell to 28-3-1 when leading after 40 minutes.