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).
Hear from Kopitar, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s game.
