The Dallas Stars have struggled to find any offense lately, especially 5-on-5, but found four goals late in Monday’s game to overcome the Los Angeles Kings.
Dallas won for the first time in its last three games, defeating the Kings 4-1 at American Airlines Center in a come-from-behind win. Matt Duchene scored his first goal since returning from injury late in the second period, and Oskar Bäck scored the game-winner early in the third period before his teammates added two insurance goals late.
“Gully just said finish this one off by outworking them, and I think we did a great job of that,” Stars goalie Casey DeSmith said. “That’s a great team over there. They played hard, but we played harder.”
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The Stars’ win came despite Dallas having two disallowed goals. The first was late in the first period when Wyatt Johnston scored off the back of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
The goal was taken off the board for goaltender interference, as Rantanen collided with Kuemper. The Kings goaltender was injured on the play and never returned. Anton Forsberg replaced him for the remainder of the game.
“Had the score been different, that one’s close for me to challenge,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I thought some of the contact was in the white and there was some pushing there.”
Dallas’ second disallowed goal came in the second period. Captain Jamie Benn pushed a puck across the goal line, but officials called it off, saying Benn illegally pushed Forsberg’s pad in.
A game of odd and illegal goals saw another that put the Kings on the board first. Two penalties on the Stars — one on Radek Faksa for high sticking and another on Bäck for tripping — gave the Kings 24 seconds with a 5-on-3 advantage.
Off the face off, DeSmith hesitated with the puck, and Kings forward Andrei Kuzmenko tapped it in between DeSmith’s legs to put Los Angeles up 1-0 just past the halfway mark of the contest.
“I’m really happy that that goal didn’t cost us anything,” DeSmith said. “Just a miscommunication between me and Miro.”
Outside of that play, DeSmith was solid for Dallas, as the Stars were outshot for the fifth straight game, 28-26. Before Monday, the Stars had gone three straight games without registering 20 shots on goal — their longest streak without doing so since 2013.
But in the latter half of Monday’s game, Dallas’ offense started to come alive. Duchene deflected in a shot by Rantanen late in the second period, scoring his first goal since returning from a 24-game hiatus for a concussion. Then, early in the third period, Bäck redirected a shot by Faksa to give the Stars the lead.
“For a guy who does everything right every day, you just love when they get rewarded,” Gulutzan said.
Rantanen then dodged three or four Los Angeles defenders in space and scored with under four minutes to play to secure the win. Wyatt Johnston added an empty-net goal in the final minute of play.
The Stars will head out west for a back-to-back at San Jose Thursday and Anaheim Friday — two teams that have surprised early this season and contended for a playoff spot despite finishing near the bottom of the league last year.