LOS ANGELES – As the Detroit Red Wings regain their health and their roster becomes crowded, several third- and fourth-line players will be competing to stay in the lineup.

Drew Miller was the odd-man out Saturday in Buffalo, which stung because he was denied a chance to play against his brother, goaltender Ryan, in front of family and friends.

A determined Miller returned to the lineup on Monday and recorded his first career two-goal game to lead the Red Wings to a 7-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.

“Not only was it good for him, good for us, but the guys are real happy for Millsie, too,'' coach Mike Babcock said. “Anytime you sit out, you want to respond.

“It was one of those situations where he obviously wanted to play against his brother. We had a tough decision. Drapes (Kris Draper) wanted to play, too, and that was kind of my decision right there. (Draper) had 10 family members (at the game), too. It's just one of those things, you can't win. But I always like to see the players respond and I thought Millsie did a great job.''

Detroit extended its road winning streak to six games, cooling off a club that was 11-1-3 in its previous 15 games.

Jimmy Howard, who signed a two-year, $4.5 million contract extension on Monday, made 35 saves. He was strong most of the night but wasn't happy that the Kings scored three times in the final eight minutes to close the gap.

“I don't know. Whatever,'' Howard said. “First and foremost we got two points and that's all that matters.''

Detroit got offensive contributions from many players. Darren Helm scored a shorthanded goal and added an assist. Jiri Hudler had a goal and an assist. Henrik Zetterberg had a pair of assists. Danny Cleary, Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings.

“It's a great sign,'' Howard said. “We need secondary scoring, especially going into the playoffs. We can't just lean on our top guys. We need everyone to contribute.''

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, who stopped 51 shots in a 5-0 win at Joe Louis Arena on Dec. 13 in the last meeting between these teams, allowed six goals on 24 shots and was pulled in favor of Jonathan Bernier at 5:53 of the third period.

“They're a good team – don't get me wrong, they're a great team,'' Quick said. “We came out and scored the first goal (by Michal Handzus on the power play at 4:09 of the first period) and then I let up a bad goal (by Miller at 6:37), kind of took the momentum out of our end and put it in their end.

“The next thing you know it's 2-1. For me, I didn't get better, unfortunately.''

Leading 3-1, the Red Wings killed a pair of Kings power plays in the second period and then got a big power-play goal from Datsyuk with 42 seconds left in the period.

“They were better than us right off the hop, then we scored some goals and got playing,'' Babcock said. “And then with eight minutes left we stopped playing, which is an unfortunate thing. But a good two points for us.''

Detroit continued to pile it on in the third period. Helm notched his eighth goal at 2:01, breaking in on the left wing and firing a shot through Quick's pads. Miller scored again at 5:53. Hudler scored on the power play at 10:22.

“After we got the first one, we found ways to get the puck in the net from all directions,'' Helm said. “Just kept shooting and shooting. Guys were doing a good job getting to the net and finding the back of it.''

Detroit scored on its first two shots of the game, 30 seconds apart, to take a 2-1 lead.

Miller pounced on a turnover in the Kings zone and fired a sharp-angle shot that slipped through Quick's five-hole at 6:37. Cleary scored his 22nd goal at 7:07, driving to the net and tipping in a shot by Hudler. Lidstrom made it 3-1 on the power play at 18:48, when his long blast hit the goal post and bounced in off of Quick's back side.

The Red Wings were missing leading goal-scorer Johan Franzen, who was home with his wife, who delivered their first child, a boy, on Sunday. Franzen will return to the lineup for Wednesday's game.

The Red Wings also hope to have defenseman Brian Rafalski back for that game. He has sat out the past two games because of back spasms.

Babcock said he can't explain why his team has fared better on the road (22-8-2) than at home (17-10-4).

“I don't know the answer to that,'' he said. “We just found a way to win and played well and good for us.''

Said Howard: “We keep it really simple. We don't try to overdo it or get too fancy, we just play a north-south game and get pucks on net.''