Larkin scores twice, Red Wings hand Kings 8th straight loss

DETROIT -- Dylan Larkin scored twice for the Detroit Red Wings, who handed the Los Angeles Kings their eighth straight loss with a 5-3 win at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, and Jeff Petry had two assists for Detroit (21-16-5), which is 4-0-1 in its past five games, including a 4-3 shootout win against the Kings on Jan. 4. Alex Lyon made 33 saves.

“We had a tough, tough stretch before Christmas, and everyone here knows what position we put ourselves in,” Larkin said. “We weren’t out of it, and now we’ve had a great trip out west, played hard against Edmonton (a 3-2 overtime loss on Thursday) and had one of our best performances tonight.”

Quinton Byfield scored twice, and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala each had two assists for Los Angeles (20-11-8), which is 0-4-4 in its past eight games. Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 27 shots before being replaced at the start of the third period by David Rittich, who made three saves.

“We’re allowed to be frustrated, this is a tough battle,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “But the frustration can’t affect the outcome of the game.”

Larkin gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 2:44 of the first period, roofing a shot from a sharp angle over Talbot's right shoulder after David Perron stole the puck from Mikey Anderson in the Kings zone.

Byfield tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 6:58, finishing off a quick passing play with Fiala and Kopitar.

Larkin put Detroit back in front 2-1 at 9:17 of the second period during a 5-on-3 power play. Kane's backdoor pass for Alex DeBrincat deflected off the stick of Vladislav Gavrikov and was stopped by Talbot, but Larkin quickly scored on the rebound.

“I thought we were playing well when it was 1-1, but then we got the offense going,” Larkin said. “We kind of took over, which is great to see.”

Robby Fabbri extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:22, and Kane tucked in a forehand on a breakaway to make it 4-1 at 17:26.

Phillip Danault had a goal overturned for the Kings 31 seconds later because of goaltender interference.

“That was a great job by our video guys,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “That’s a huge moment, because it would be 4-2 and they’d have a power play, but they got it exactly right.”

Andrew Copp then pushed it to 5-1 at 19:47 when Christian Fischerr's redirection of Petry's point shot deflected in off him in front.

“Woe is us was our theme song after the second period, but we showed up with tenacity in the third,” McLellan said. “That’s a positive sign if we can take one out of this.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored a power-play goal to make it 5-2 at 3:07 of the third, and Byfield scored another power-play goal at 5:38 to cut it to 5-3.

A little more than a minute later, Dubois got open at the back post, but Lyon made the point-blank save.

“That’s a set play and we unfortunately missed an assignment that left Dubois open on the backdoor,” Lalonde said. “Alex was huge there, and he had some huge saves when they pulled the goalie at the end.”

NOTES: The Red Wings visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. ... Detroit won 65.6 percent of face-offs (40-for-61), highlighted by Larkin, who was 18-for-25 (72.0 percent). Kopitar was 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) for the Kings. ... Larkin has five points (three goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak.