Rantanen has goal, assist, leads Stars past Kings

Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist for the Dallas Stars in a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Monday.

Matt Duchene and Wyatt Johnston each also had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Back scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period for the Stars (22-7-5), who had lost two straight. Casey DeSmith made 27 saves.

“I think we were patient,” Duchene said. “Casey was big when we needed him, and I think we just stuck with it. … Yeah, I think we got what we deserved tonight.”

Darcy Kuemper made five saves for the Kings (14-9-9) before sustaining an upper-body injury following a collision with Rantanen at 16:00 of the first period. Kuemper took a forearm to the head and was down on the ice for several minutes before eventually going back to the locker room under his own power.

“I saw a player come into the blue paint and run into our goaltender. That’s what I saw,” said Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller, who had no update on Kuemper’s status.

Anton Forsberg took over in net for the rest of the night, allowing three goals on 20 shots for Los Angeles, which has lost three straight (0-1-2).

“I thought we played a good 40 minutes,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “Third period, just gave up a little too much, obviously. Got to put a 60-minute game together.”

Back gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 6:12 of the third period by redirecting Radek Faksa’s shot from the blue line. The goal was Back's first since his season debut on Oct. 26 (23 games).

“Great to see ‘Backer’ get one, too,” Duchene said. “I mean, that’s a guy that works so hard every night. Huge on the kill. That whole line chips in with the game-winner, that’s huge for us.”

Rantanen made it 3-1 at 16:11 with a snap shot from the slot off a rush before Johnston scored an empty-net goal at 19:28 for the 4-1 final.

Andrei Kuzmenko put the Kings ahead 1-0 during a 5-on-3 power play at 11:03 of the second period. DeSmith hesitated playing the puck after it came back to him off the face-off, allowing Kuzmenko to race in and score from close range.

“He’s just been so rock-solid all year, and those things happen,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said of DeSmith. “He just rebounds right away. I love his mental toughness.”

Duchene tied it 1-1 at 15:42, charging the crease and getting behind Los Angeles forward Alex Turcotte and Doughty to put in a pass from Rantanen.

It was Duchene’s first point in five games after missing 24 because of a concussion.

“You could see his timing is getting back, and he created some offense,” Gulutzan said. “That’s what ‘Dutchie’ is going to bring for us when he gets his motor up and running completely, is just against these teams who play man-on-man, he can hold on to pucks. He’s a heavy body, and he can twist and turn and buy time and make little plays in tight spaces, so it’s going to help increase our O-zone time.”

The Kings have scored two goals or fewer in six of their past eight games, going 3-3-2 in that span. Doughty said Los Angeles is still not doing enough to create pressure in and around the crease that can result in more scoring.

“To be honest, I thought we created a little more chances,” Doughty said. “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 had 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.”

NOTES: DeSmith is 8-1-3 in 12 starts this season, with his only regulation loss coming in his season debut against the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 16. … The Stars are 7-0-1 in their past eight home games against the Kings. … Rantanen has had multiple points in five of his past 10 games.