The Kings continued their six-game road trip with stop number four in Detroit on Saturday as they looked to snap a seven-game winless streak. Unfortunately, the streak still exists as a 5-3 loss to the Red Wings extended their winless streak to eight games (0-4-4).
The goals came early on Saturday as the Red Wings struck just 2:44 into the game when Dylan Larkin beat Cam Talbot from a tight angle for his 15th goal of the season. It didn’t take long for the Kings to respond, as Quinton Byfield evened the score on the power play less than five minutes later. Setting up Byfield was Kevin Fiala, who made his way around a Red Wings defender and proceeded to begin a beautiful tic-tac-toe between himself, Anze Kopitar and Byfield. Evening the score at 1-1, the team’s entered the first intermission with the Kings leading 9-8 in the shot department.
The second period was all Red Wings as they outscored the Kings 4-0 and outshot them 19-10. The four-goal period also resulted in the end of Talbot’s night. Talbot was pulled after two period, stopping 22 of 27 shots. David Rittich took the net for the Kings in relief, making his fourth appearances of the season.
Trailing 5-1 entering the third period, the Kings quickly made it interesting by scoring a pair of goals in the first 5:38. Pierre-Luc Dubois found the back of the net on the power play for his first goal in eight games. Alex Laferriere set up Dubois in the slot and a one-time snap shot earned the center his eighth goal on the season. Minutes later, Byfield netted his second power-play goal of the night, picking up a loose rebound off of a Kopitar shot. The goal marked Byfield’s 12th goal of the season for his team-leading fourth multi-goal game. With tonight’s performance, Byfield recorded his first career 30-point season (12-18=30) in his 39th game of the campaign to become the 13th different Kings skater 21 years of age or younger to tally 30 points within the teams' first 39 games to start a season, and the first to do so since Anze Kopitar (10-20=30) in 2008-09.
The Kings cut the deficit to two goals, but were unable to cash in the rest of the way despite a 17-3 shot advantage in the period.
The Kings will next head to Raleigh, North Carolina for a Monday matinee with the 24-13-5 Carolina Hurricanes for their fifth of six straight road games.
