LOS ANGELES -- Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard was spectacular Thursday night, stopping the first 51 shots he faced.

He lost his shutout bid and the lead with less than 5 minutes remaining in regulation, on the 52nd and final shot fired at him. But he skated off a winner after Darren Helm scored with 17.3 seconds to play as the Red Wings edged the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1, at the Staples Center.

"He was huge,'' Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart said. "He might have stolen a couple of points for us.''

The Red Wings were outshot 52-24.

Howard said he never had faced that many shots in a regulation game at any level. He stopped all 27 fired at him in the second period, the most the Kings have ever recorded in one period.

"I thought Howie was good, but I thought the guy running the shot clock in the second period was related to someone in L.A.,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought we played pretty well through two periods, they took over in the third period, really tilted the rink. Howie gave us a chance.''

Howard, making his seventh consecutive start, said, "I just wanted to stay the course, just stay back there and keep battling and give the team a chance to win. That's basically all I tried to do tonight.''

After a potentially deflating power-play goal by Ryan Smyth with 4:22 remaining in the third period, Howard said he felt a huge sense of relief when he saw the goal light illuminate at the other end in the waning seconds.

"I don't know if I could have lasted another five minutes,'' Howard said. "Helm made a great play, got the puck in the corner and took it to the net hard and was able to slide it in five-hole (against goalie Jonathan Quick). Good to see from a guy who works really, really hard.''

Said Helm: "He's been playing so well for us. It's disappointing when we let him down like that. We didn't give him a whole lot of support in the third period. It was good to get the win for him. He definitely deserves it the way he played.''

It was a huge win for the Red Wings, who started the night five points behind a group of three teams, including the Kings, for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"That's big when you can get points and not give the other team points, especially when they're ahead of you,'' Stuart said.

Helm has four goals in his past four games, two of them empty netters.

"Just a battle in the corner. I was able to kind of spin off and there was a big gap towards the net and I took it to the net as hard as I could,'' Helm said. "(Quick) went to poke it, I think we both hit the puck at the same time.

"I don't know how many times I try to make that play, throw pucks to the net and at (the goalie's) feet and nothing happens. It finally paid off.''

for three to four weeks with a broken foot Wednesday, but welcomed back forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary, each of whom was out with a separated shoulder, on Thursday.

Cleary scored with 0.2 seconds to play in the first period to give his club a 1-0 lead. He knocked in the puck from the crease following a backhand shot by Valtteri Filppula that was kicked aside by Quick.

After that goal, the Kings outshot the Red Wings 42-11 over the final 40 minutes.

"They were finding lanes to get shots and throwing a lot of pucks from the side of the net,'' Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom said. "I thought we played well in our own zone, but Howie came up big in those chances.

"They carried most of the game. In a game like this, we needed (Howard's performance). And we needed a win, too.''