Durzi nets two goals, pushing Kings to 4-3 victory

LOS ANGELES --Sean Durzi scored twice for his first multigoal NHL game, and the Los Angeles Kings held on for a 4-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

"With the passers we got on this team, it's pretty surprising it's my first one," Durzi said. "But a lot of great plays, got to credit my teammates."
Carl Grundstrom and Kevin Fiala scored, and Arthur Kaliyev and Phillip Danault each had two assists for the Kings (10-6-1), who swept a four-game homestand and are 6-1-1 in their past eight. Cal Petersen made 18 saves.
"Obviously, you want to be strong at home and play good in front of your fans, so I think it's a really big step in the right direction here now," Grundstrom said.
Dominik Kubalik and Filip Hronek each had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings (7-5-3), who are 0-2-1 in their past three games. Alex Nedeljkovic allowed four goals on 21 shots.
"The first two periods, just not good enough on any level. It starts with me, too," Detroit forward Oskar Sundqvist said. "Third period, that's what we're taking from this game. We need to play like that for 60 minutes and we'll win a lot of hockey games in this league."

DET@LAK: Durzi scores PPG in 2nd period

Durzi gave the Kings a 3-1 lead at 6:23 of the second period, scoring with a quick shot from low in the left circle that beat Nedeljkovic to the near post shortly after a power play expired.
Durzi then made it 4-1 at 13:41 with a one-timer from the point on a power play.
Dylan Larkin cut it to 4-2 at 1:57 of the third period with a one-timer in the slot off a pass from Sundqvist on a power play.
"We made a good push in the third," said Red Wings forward David Perron, who had two assists. "I thought 'Lars' led the way there, phenomenal the whole game, but in the third especially and almost willed some points there."
Hronek got Detroit to within 4-3 at 17:59 when his shot from distance made it through traffic with Nedeljkovic pulled for an extra skater.
"We started putting more pucks at the net, all that stuff, creating traffic," Perron said. "I mean, our power play did some good stuff, too, and 6-on-5, so that's the positives tonight."
Grundstrom scored nine seconds into the game to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. Alexander Edler sent a stretch pass off the opening face-off to Rasmus Kupari, who skated in on a 2-on-1 and found Grundstrom at the edge of the right circle with a backhand feed.

DET@LAK: Grundstrom opens scoring 9 seconds in

It was the second-fastest goal to start a game in Kings history. Dave Williams scored seven seconds into a 5-2 win against the Hartford Whalers on Feb. 14, 1987.
Kubalik tied it 1-1 at 4:09, scoring on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Hronek on a power play.
"It's a hard game when you score right away, like you don't want your teammates to get flat and think it's going to be an easy game," Danault said. "Almost was good that they score back after and got us right back in the game, and we just kept playing our game for 60 minutes solid, so I'm really proud of our boys tonight."
Fiala put the Kings back in front 2-1 with his own power-play goal at 13:21. His soft backhand shot from the right circle went between Nedeljkovic's legs, and the goaltender's right pad swept the puck over the goal line as he tried to cover it up.
"Sometimes just our finish we're missing, but obviously it was working tonight," Danault said." We worked at it and stayed confident, and we believe in our group, and two big goals tonight on the power play."
NOTES:Kings forward Brendan Lemieux did not return after he was injured delivering a check to Red Wings forward Adam Erne at 11:10 of the second period. "I think he's probably going to be out for a little while, but I can't give you any more than that," coach Todd McLellan said. … Perron's secondary assist on Kubalik's goal was his 400th in the NHL.