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Red Wings Special Teams Dominate In 7-4 Win

The Detroit Red Wings got a pair of power play goals plus a shorthanded tally as Detroit cruised to a 7-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom scored on the power play, Darren Helm scored a shorthanded tally and Drew Miller recorded a pair of goals as the Wings won their sixth straight road game. Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick surrendered six goals on 24 shots and was yanked six minutes into the third period.

Jimmy Howard stopped 35 shots in picking up his 10th consecutive road victory. Detroit is now 22-8-2 on the road this year and scored their first victory against Los Angeles on the season.

Miller scored the first of his two goals a little over two minutes after Michal Handzus put the Kings on the board with a power play tally in the first period. Thirty seconds after Miller scored, Danny Cleary tipped in Jiri Hudler's shot from the half-boards past Quick for a 2-1 lead the Wings wouldn't relinquish.

Lidstrom put Detroit up 3-1 with 1:12 left in the first, taking a centering feed from Mike Modano and banking a shot off of the post and in on the power play for a 3-1 lead. The assist was Modano's first point since he picked up a helper in a 5-1 loss to Atlanta on Nov. 24.

Datsyuk connected on the power play again in the final minute of the second, firing a laser into the top shelf after shifting his way around a pair of defenders.

Detroit continued the onslaught in the third. Two minutes in, Helm chipped a loose puck past a Kings defender to center ice while on the penalty kill, then raced past everyone and fired a shot under Quick. Miller's second goal made it 6-1 a little under six minutes in, forcing Quick from the game.

Jiri Hudler tallied the seventh Red Wing goal, taking a cross-ice pass from Jakub Kindl and depositing it easily past new goalie Jonathan Bernier just as a tripping penalty to Los Angeles' Kyle Clifford expired. 

Dustin Brown, Wayne Simmonds and Brad Richardson scored three straight goals in the game's final 8:34 for the Kings to close the gap, but it was far too late to mount a serious comeback.