Jimmy Howard-1-18-14

Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard stops Justin Williams for one of his 30 saves vs. the Kings.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT – Goaltenders Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings and Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings will join forces as teammates for the U.S. next month at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

But on Saturday, they were not exchanging pleasantries.

Quick was not happy about altercations Howard had with a pair of his teammates and let him know while the two were crossing paths on the way to their respective benches during a TV timeout in the second period.

Quick shoved Howard. Todd Bertuzzi intervened and shoved Quick.

That’s as far as it went.

“We were just discussing what we were going to do over in Sochi together, who we were going to bring,” Howard said. “I told him I was bringing my parents and my sister and I asked him who he was bringing, so it was a good discussion.”

Howard was much more jovial after his team's 3-2 shootout victory at Joe Louis Arena than he was at 11:44 of the second period, when Kyle Clifford slid into him.

Howard roughed up Clifford in the crease. After Howard got up, Mike Richards got in his face and shoved him. Luke Glendening came to Howard’s defense, giving Richards a facewash. It led to a multi-player scrum.

“You got to take exception when someone goes toward your goalie, even if your goalie goes towards him,” Glendening said. “You like to see that fire out of your goalie and it gets the whole team pumped up.”

Said Howard: “I was actually exhausted after and was happy that it was a TV timeout that I could get a chance to breathe. Probably not the smartest time for me to do that in a 1-1 hockey game, but it actually might have helped me focus in even more.”

Howard and Richards received off-setting minor penalties for roughing.

“I thought Howie got fired up, showed good emotion but had good emotional control,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

It wasn't the first time Howard got riled up during a game. He took exception to Sidney Crosby's antics during a game against Pittsburgh on March 22, 2010, roughing it up with the Penguins superstar and giving him a facewash.