In Detroit, Jimmy Howard made 42 saves to backstop the Red Wings to a 3-1 win over the lackluster Los Angeles Kings.
Forty-two saves are not difficult when the opposition is aiming for the crest.
“Jimmy Howard is my favorite thing about this game,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We weren’t good enough tonight. They outplayed us, and Jimmy gave us a chance to win the game.” 
Dennis Cholowski, Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin struck for the Wings.
“It was a sloppy game, but we capitalized on our chances,” Larkin said. “We didn’t play our best, but [Howard] was on. He’s the main reason we got two points.”
Anze Kopitar scored the lone goal for the Kings who have scored two goals or less in 12 of their 14 matches.
“We had a lot of chances, but we also gave up too many,” Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin said. “Sure, we could have scored a couple more goals, but so could they, and we don’t score enough to play that kind of hockey.”
The loss dropped LA to 11-19-1.
“We scored five goals in our last game, and then we didn’t do anything again tonight,” Kings forward Adrian Kempe said. “If we put away one of those great chances in the second period, we probably win the game.”
Los Angeles continues to ;lose more contact with the rest of the Pacific Division and may be irrelevant by the end of the holidays in December.
“We played hard, we created a lot of chances, and that’s probably the best third period we’ve played in five or six games. There were a lot of good signs out there tonight, but we have to start capitalizing on our chances,” LA head coach Willie Desjardins said.
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Red Wings highlights]
Jonathan Quick made 18 savesin the loss.
“We got 43 shots and we had a lot of 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 rushes, but we only scored one goal,” Kopitar said. “We can’t be satisfied by just creating chances, we need to start scoring.”
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