The Los Angeles Kings have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL recently and they will look to keep their hot streak going on Wednesday night when the Detroit Red Wings visit the Staples Center in California.
The Kings are looking to win their fifth game in a row against a Red Wings team that has been hot itself, winning three straight games. The Kings started off the season slow but have come on lately, outscoring opponents 23-10 while winning six of seven games, including in a 5-2 win at home against the Ducks on Monday night.
Dustin Brown and Slava Voynov had a goal and an assist for the Kings on Monday and snapped a six game winning streak by Anaheim in the Battle of California.
"We showed a lot of character coming back and sticking with it (for) the full 60 minutes," said defenseman Jake Muzzin, who scored his second goal. "We've been preaching about that for the last couple of weeks, and we feel like we've been getting better and better at it."
Goaltender Jonathan Quick has been playing extremely well during the teams win streak, making 24 saves on Monday and posting a sub-2.00 goals against average during his own personal three game winning streak. The Kings have rebounded from a two game losing stream that ended with a 3-2 loss against the same Red Wings on Feb. 10.
Detroit followed that win with a five game losing streak, but have since rebounded with two big wins against Nashville on Saturday 4-0 and high0scoinrg affair against Vancouver, winning 8-3 on Sunday. The team hadn't scored more than three goals in seven games before erupting against the Canucks.
"It's a better feeling when you're winning games, but in saying that, those five games that we lost ... we still have to get back to a winning streak," captain Henrik Zetterberg told the Red Wings' official website. "We have to go down and win games. We have to regroup and starting Wednesday we have to be good again."
The Red Wings have been solid in net with Jimmy Howard, who has won three of four games against the Kings. Detroit has been solid on the power play over the past two games after going just 1 for 17 in the previous five and are now ranked 19th in the NHL in power play percentage.
Detroit has been one of the most consistent scoring teams in the NHL with nearly three goals per game and are ranked 18th in goals against average with 2.8. The team is also ranked 24th in penalty kill percentage with 76.9 of penalties killed.
The Kings are ranked ninth in the NHL in goals against behind the play of Quick and are 19th in the NHL in scoring with 2.6 goals per game. The team is ranked 23rd in power play percentage and are 17th in penalty kill percentage with 80.8 percent.
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