The victory enabled the Kings to pull within one point of second place in the Pacific Division.
The Wings fell to 26-33-11 overall and 13-19-3 on the road while the Kings improved to 39-26-6 overall and 19-13-3 at home.
Gustav Nyquist (power play) scored for Detroit and Paul LaDue, Anze Kopitar, Tyler Toffoli and Dustin Brown (power play, empty net) scored for Los Angeles.
1. Losing skid: It's not that the Wings are playing poorly or failing to give a good effort, but they just have not found a way to win this month. The losing skid reached eight games after the loss at Los Angeles. The Wings even managed to get a goal against the league's second-best penalty kill, killed off three of four Kings' power plays and held the Kings to 22 shots but it was not enough.
Quotable: "We focus every game, and so we're gonna turn around. We're gonna have meetings tomorrow and we're gonna try to win a hockey game tomorrow. You better have a short memory in this league. You gotta find a way to win the next game. Once this goes away, you learn from it. Once this game ends, you learn from it and you find a way to win the next one. We're gonna fight like crazy tomorrow and try to win." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable II: "I don't know really if we can play any differently. I think we work hard, we battle well. We're not getting goals with us, and tough goals against." - Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg
2.Jared Coreau: The 6-foot-6 goaltender had one of his best games of his career last season in a 4-0 shutout of the Kings in Los Angeles. The Kings played their usual heavy game and Coreau had to make several early saves while the Wings got their legs underneath them. Coreau stopped former Arizona Coyote Tobias Rieder at 1:30 of the first period and then Tyler Toffoli three minutes later. At 8:55, defenseman Paul LaDue's shot from the right point beat Coreau for a 1-0 lead. Alex Iaffalo and Anze Kopitar got the assists. In the second, the Wings took a few penalties but the killers - including Coreau - held up. A fluky bounce cost Coreau in the third as Kopitar batted at a fluttering puck behind the net and it went forward, hitting the crossbar and then Coreau's back before going in the net. Kopitar had a goal and three assists and Drew Doughty had three assists. In 35 career games against the Wings, Kopitar has 13 goals and 24 assists. Coreau finished with 18 saves.
Quotable: "It went off their guy, our guy, their guy, then back up the net, rolled up and hit me in the back." - Coreau
Quotable II: "I thought Jared played good. I thought our team played good in front of him. I thought we played extremely well defensively. It was a tight, tight checking game. It was hard to get offense. Both teams blocked tons of shots. Both teams had stick on puck. I thought Jared did a good job and made saves when he needed to. I thought (Jonathan) Quick made saves when he needed to. Unfortunately, we come up on the short end of that. Our kill had done a great job on that kill and it goes up and hits the goalie in the back of the neck and goes in. It's unfortunate." - Blashill
3. Gustav Nyquist: As they say on Twitter, Goose is loose. Nyquist had a goal and an assist in the Wings' 5-3 loss at San Jose Monday night. On Thursday, the Wings started the third period on the power play and Nyquist's initial shot hit the right post, but he followed it with a rebound into the empty net for his 18th goal of the season. In 13 career games against the Kings, Nyquist has three goals and three assists. Niklas Kronwall and Frans Nielsen had the assists.
Quotable: "He's been working hard all year, hasn't really gotten the production that he's probably deserved when you look at his work ethic, so it's good to see that he got some now." - Zetterberg
