Kings 4, Wings 3: Detroit blows three-goal lead

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

Los Angeles -- All coach Mike Babcock could do, really, was shrug his shoulders.

"It just seems to be part of the equation here," he said, after losing three players during the Red Wings' 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings Saturday. "There's nothing you can do about it. Just suck it up and try to find a way to win."

The Wings seemingly had this game in their back pockets. Henrik Zetterberg scored twice and Valtteri Filppula once, and they led 3-0 lead after the first period.

But things unraveled very quickly in the second.

First Tomas Holmstrom went out with a bruised left knee in the first period. Drew Miller left with an ankle bruise in the second after blocking a shot. Patrick Eaves left in the second with an ankle sprain.

All three players will be evaluated Sunday, though none of the injuries appear to be long-term.

"We had the game going our way but we made two critical mistakes and let them back into the game," Babcock said. "I thought we had enough to get it done but we never got it done. It's disappointing."

Even down three forwards, the Wings dominated play in the third period. Zetterberg and Darren Helm rang shots off the goal post. The Wings squandered two power-play chances early in the period.

Then, with 2:21 left, a bouncing puck in front of Jimmy Howard landed on Michal Handzus' stick and he deposited the winner. It was his second goal of the game and it gave the Kings a franchise best nine-game winning streak.

"This is a tough one," said Howard. "I take a lot of the blame for this one. I didn't think I had my best outing. I am very disappointed in how I played."

He wasn't the only player feeling that way. Brad Stuart was on the ice for all four Kings' goals and Jonathan Ericsson for three of them.

Stuart coughed up the puck on a breakout pass from behind his own net that Scott Parse wound up with. He put it on the net and Alexander Frolov poked it in for the first goal.

The second one was worse. Howard mishandled the puck in front of the net, nearly knocking it in the goal himself. Handzus was there to swipe it into the net.

"I tried to play the puck before I stopped it," Howard said. "It was a dumb mistake on my part."

Less than two minutes later, the Kings tied it. Wayne Simmonds made a strong play to work the puck to the front of the net and Ryan Smyth, battling with Ericsson, chipped it past Howard.

"In the second we didn't play well enough in front of our net," captain Nick Lidstrom said. "They got a lot of pucks to the net and they really crashed. We didn't do a good enough job of clearing the rebound or taking players out of there."

It was a stunning turnaround, considering how well the Wings played in the first period.

"We're not putting a full 60-minute game together," Lidstrom said. "We have moments when we play the way we want to play, and then we have letdowns and let teams back into the game."

Zetterberg and Filppula scored 16 seconds apart in the first period. Zetterberg, who worked free of a Simmonds check, buried a perfect crossing pass from Pavel Datsyuk.

Then, on the next rush, Filppula lost control of the puck as he was making his move in front of the net, but he spun and got a backhander off toward the net. It deflected past Jonathan Quick off the skate of defenseman Sean O'Donnell.

Then, with the teams playing four-on-four in the final minute of the period, Lidstrom's slap shot caromed off the back board right to Brian Rafalski. His shot was saved by Quick but Zetterberg was there to clean it up for his second goal of the game and his 16th of the season.

"The same thing keeps happening," said Todd Bertuzzi. "We keep giving up leads and giving away points. But we can't sit here and pout. We're still right there. But it's getting to the point now where the games are numbered and we are out of the playoffs.

"We need to start getting two points, not just one. No more shootouts. We have to win some games and get some momentum before the (Olympic) break."

With three games left before the break, the Wings are three points behind Calgary (an overtime loser Saturday night) and two behind Nashville, which lost in regulation.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com