The Dallas Stars (22-7-5) scored three times in the third period to go ahead and eventually pulled out a 4-1 win over the LA Kings (14-9-9) on Monday night at the American Airlines Center.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored the lone Kings goal of the contest on the power play, while goaltender Anton Forsberg came on in relief of an injured Darcy Kuemper and finished with 17 saves in a losing effort for LA.
The Kings had a good start to the contest in the opening period, putting 10 of the first 14 shots on goal in the game at the Dallas net. But with four minutes remaining in the period, after a faceoff win by the Stars in the LA zone, Mikko Rantanen injured goaltender Darcy Kuemper, took contact from the forward and fell to the ice.
Moments after the contact, the Stars put the puck in the net, but the goal was immediately waived off due to goaltender interference. Kuemper was unable to continue in the crease and was replaced by Forsberg, finishing with five saves in 16 minutes of action.
Neither team was able to get on the board during the remainder of the opening frame and the score was 0-0 after 20 minutes with the Kings holding an 11-5 shots on goal edge.
Both clubs had looks on the man-advantage early in the second, but weren’t able to convert. Things ramped up later in the frame when coincidental penalties were called to both Radek Faksa and Brandt Clarke at 10:36. Faksa received four minutes for high-sticking, while Clarke was given two minutes for interference, which led to a Kings power play. Then during the man-advantage, an Oskar Back tripping call put LA on a 5-on-3 power play for 24 seconds.
On the ensuing faceoff to begin the 5-on-3, Dallas netminder Casey DeSmith came to the top of the crease to play the puck and Kuzmenko knocked it off of his stick and into the open net for his fifth tally of the season to put the Kings in front, 1-0.
Then, as the Back minor was about to expire, Joel Armia was called for hooking after he went for a stick lift in the offensive zone. The Stars had multiple looks to score after two of the Kings clearing attempts were inadvertently blocked by their own penalty killers, keeping Dallas’s attackers in the offensive zone.
Moments later, Forsberg made a big save on Mavrik Bourque near the right post and as the penalty expired, the Stars had the puck in the net for a second time, but once again it was disallowed due to Jamie Benn pushing the pad of Forsberg in the net along with the puck.
Less than a minute after that sequence with 4:18 to go in the period, the Stars got on the board to tie the game at 1-1 when Matt Duchene redirected a feed down low that beat Forsberg, who got a piece of the puck before it slid into the net.
The game remained even into the second intermission, with LA holding a 24-14 edge in shots on goal after 40 minutes.
At 6:12 of the third, Dallas went in front for the first time on a shot by Faksa that was tipped past Forsberg by Back to make it a 2-1 game.
The Stars took control from there, adding on at 16:11 of the third when Rantanen scored off a rush to make it 3-1.
Dallas capped things off with an empty-net tally by Wyatt Johnston in the final minute of the third to secure the win in front of their home fans.
DeSmith earned the win in the crease for the Stars with 27 saves. LA ended the game with a 28-26 edge in shots on goal and netted the lone power play goal of the game, going 1-for-3 while denying both of Dallas’ opportunities on the man-advantage (0-for-2).
Postgame thoughts from Kuzmenko and Drew Doughty, as well as head coach Jim Hiller are below.
Andrei Kuzmenko
Drew Doughty
On where he felt the team fell short
I thought we played a good 40 minutes. In the third period, just gave up a little too much, obviously. Got to put a 60 minute game together. I mean, it’s basically not possible to play a complete 60 every game, but can’t just take off the third period. I don’t think we necessarily took it off, but we definitely weren’t as good, and hopefully in the good 40 minutes, capitalize a few more times and grow a lead, would be nice.
On how the team can find offense and generate more
To be honest, I thought we created a little more chances. We tweaked a couple things in our system that helped us with breakouts, and I thought that the D were able to get more involved, and we have more four-man attacks, so I thought that was a bright spot. But yeah, the bottom line is, we’re not putting pucks in the net. I mean, it’s the same old thing about having guys at the net and screening the goalie and getting tips and dirty goals, and I still just honestly don’t believe we have enough of that, we’re too perimeter.
On what he saw during the play where Kuemper was injured and the team’s reaction
We were pretty pissed, because we thought it was a penalty. And then obviously we’re losing our best player this season, right? We tried to go out there and get that win for him, but unfortunately, not, and hopefully he’s okay, because he’s a big part to our team.
Jim Hiller
On how he felt his team played early in the game and when they took the lead
I thought we had the energy for the first 40 minutes. We forechecked, we were physical and had lots of loose pucks in and around their net. Third period wasn’t as good, obviously, we needed somebody to make a big play at one moment. They did. We didn’t. That’s the end of it.
On getting a 5-on-3 power play goal with a good bounce
Finally, yeah, we had a couple other good looks on the five on four as well. So, you know, we shut them down. I mean, we had to make a couple good saves. They have an excellent power play, that was a story coming into the game. Only took two penalties and did a good job with that. You get one, you want to win the hockey game.
On the play of Forsberg, who came on in relief
Well, he was excellent. I mean, the pad save he made in the second period, just holding it out. Tough situation to come into, but you couldn’t ask for anything more from him.
On the response of his team tonight after Saturday’s overtime loss
Yeah, for that 40 minutes, I’m not gonna say it’s our best for 40 on the road, but it was up there with any 40 minutes we’ve played on the road, and in third period, we just didn’t have enough. Once they got one, once they got ahead of us, they stood back, they clogged like we did, and makes it really difficult. You got to put it behind them and go to work, and it’s such a grinding game nowadays when you can’t create good rush chances, and we weren’t able to get anything else done
On the play of the fourth line with Helenius, Perry, Malott
Very effective. I think if you probably sussed out the time on ice versus time in the o-zone, they were probably by percentage, I would think that they would have led us. They were dangerous. They were good, and had a presence beyond that.
Notes –
-Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (1-0=1) scored his team-leading fourth power play goal of the season, his ninth point (5-4=9) on the campaign. Kuzmenko now has six points (2-4=6) in his five career appearances at American Airlines Center.
-Captain Anze Kopitar played in his 75th career game against the Dallas Stars this evening, breaking a tie with former teammate and Kings captain Dustin Brown (74 GP) for the most games played against the Stars in LA Kings history. No other active player in the NHL has taken the ice against Dallas in more regular season contests than Kopitar has done.