Red Wings 5, Kings 2

Wings bounce back with win, milestone

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

Detroit -- It took about a half of a period, but Detroit finally shook off whatever cobwebs lingered from its horrendous night in Buffalo on Tuesday and, behind a milestone night for captain Nick Lidstrom and a lot of help from goalie Chris Osgood, beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2, on Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

"It feels great," said captain Nick Lidstrom, who with two assists became the eighth defenseman in NHL history to amass 1,000 points. He was given a long standing ovation and a video tribute during a television timeout.

"It had been awhile and people were asking about it," Lidstrom said. "But it's great to do it here in front of the home fans. It was a great feeling."

The Wings got goals from Jonathan Ericsson, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Kirk Maltby and an empty-netter from Brian Rafalski.

"We were tentative at the start and that was expected," coach Mike Babcock said. "Anytime you get beat like we did in Buffalo, confidence isn't high. It took a while to get playing, but we did and we got stronger as the game went on."

Down 1-0 after the first period, the Wings scored twice in a span of 5:14 in the second. Justin Abdelkader won a faceoff from Peter Harrold, fed it back to Jonathan Ericsson at the left point. He blistered a shot past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.

It was Ericsson's second goal of the season and Abdelkader's first career regular season point.

Then, after the Kings were nabbed for too many men on the ice, Holmstrom deflected Lidstrom's shot from the point for his fourth goal of the season.

Osgood, 10-2 against the Kings the last five seasons, took it from there. The Kings kept relentless pressure for nearly six minutes but couldn't get it past Osgood. He stopped a hard shot from a driving Ryan Smyth, and then got himself back in position to stop the rebound shot by Anze Kopitar.

Osgood then stopped a one-timer in the slot from Harrold, stopped a slapper from the point through a screen, and then denied Wayne Simmonds on two whacks from the crease.

"They have talented guys on their top two lines and they really came at us," Osgood said. "But we were able to hold them off. We played better but there are still things we need to sharpen up. At home you can get away with little mistakes that on the road you never do. We have lots of room for improvement."

The Wings third goal was set up by a crafty play by Kris Draper early in the third. He goaded Jarret Stoll into a holding penalty -- Draper actually was holding Stoll's stick under his arm -- that stopped a Kings power-play chance.

On the ensuing faceoff, won by Zetterberg, Lidstrom's shot was deflected in by Zetterberg -- Lidstrom's 1,000th point and Zetterberg's first goal of the season.

Zetterberg had been challenged by Babcock after the morning skate to take his game to another level.

"He was good," Babcock said. "He answered the challenge."

The Kings made it 3-2 on a fluke goal with 8:03 left. Sean O'Donnell's shot from the point hit off Lidstrom and was knocked in by Justin Williams.

Maltby got that one right back for the Wings. First, he took the puck from defenseman Drew Doughty. Bertuzzi picked up the loose puck. His shot rebounded to Maltby, who slammed it in off Quick.

"We played real solid once we got our legs 10 minutes into the game," Lidstrom said. "We played much better as a five-man unit and much better in our own zone."

The Wings are 21-2 against the Kings dating to 2002, 11-1 at Joe Louis Arena.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com (313) 222-1489