Kings Tie Wings
Only some very friendly goal posts kept the Detroit Red Wings from losing their third straight and the Los Angeles Kings from winning their sixth straight Wednesday night.
The Kings' Josef Stumpel and Brad Chartrand both banged third-period shots off the posts as Los Angeles and Detroit skated to a 1-1 tie.
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"We had a late night and a tough game in Pittsburgh. We didn't get to bed 'til 3 this morning," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "Everybody expected us to be tired, so we said 'let's change that. Let's look fresh, have short shifts and surprise them with our energy and enthusiasm.' "
"I'm sure Detroit talked all day about 'let's jump on them and get them down."'
The Kings lead the Western Conference with 21 points and are 6-2-2 on the road. Detroit is winless (0-2-1) in three games after a 7-1-1 start.
"We have to score some more goals," Red Wings center Igor Larionov said. "We should be able to control the puck more. I would say we didn't control the puck really well."
Steve Yzerman scored for Detroit on a power play in the first period. Ziggy Palffy scored the Kings' goal with just six seconds remaining in the second, his third goal in two nights.
Kings goaltender Stephane Fiset made 31 saves, while Chris Osgood stopped 18 shots.
Chartrand hit te crossbar at the end of a 2-on-1 break with Glen Murray, as the Kings skated shorthanded in the final seconds of regulation.
"I just wanted to get the puck up because I knew the goaltender would be coming across. I missed by inches," Chartrand said. "Looking at it in retrospect, you have to put the puck in the net, but in my mind I was trying to do the right thing and get the puck up."
"I heard the clang and thought it got under. I'm a little disappointed it didn't go in, but you just have to come back and regroup."
Murray thought it did go in.
"I can't ask them to review it," Murray said. "It looked to me like it hit under the crossbar and came back out."
The chance came after the Kings' Bryan Smolinski hooked Brendan Shanahan to give the Red Wings a power play for the last 1:27 of regulation and the first 33 seconds of overtime.
Stumpel, who assisted on Palffy's goal, hit the left post earlier in the third period.
"Thank you for the posts," Detroit defenseman Steve Duchesne said. "We have to be a little more careful in the neutral zone. We seem to get in trouble when we don't get the puck deep."
Fiset stopped Detroit's best third-period chance with a kick stop of Chris Chelios' drive from the top of the right circle.
"We're not scoring. Obviously that's been a problem the last few games," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "We said at the beginning of the year (the Kings) did a good job shutting everybody down. They played a tight game."
The Kings, who have the NHL's top power play, failed on their only two chances. Yzerman scored on the second of Detroit's four power-play chances.
Yzerman's third goal of the season was the 595th of his career. Sergei Fedorov set it up with a backward pass between his legs from behind the net that Yzerman flipped over Fiset's left shoulder at 14:59.
Palffy got behind Nicklas Lidstrom to take a quick pass from Stumpel and broke in alone on Osgood for his sixth goal.
"They were just going to throw it in, wait for a mistake or a power play," Bowman said. "That's how they got their goal."
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