Saturday, March 22, 2008

Los Angeles Kings 4, Dallas Stars 2

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — Just when it looked like the Dallas Stars were about to get back in the win column, they suffered another late game collapse against the Los Angeles Kings. Leading 2-1 with just over three minutes to go in the game, the Stars were left dazed and confused after the Kings scored three times on four shots in a 1:42 span to rally for a 4-2 win at the American Airlines Center Saturday afternoon. The loss was the fourth straight for the Stars.

"We are making mistakes and not covering up for each other, and it's ending up in the back of our net. It's as simple as that," said Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "You have a letdown and that's what happens."

The loss was the seventh in the last eight games for the Stars, who have been outscored 14-1 in third periods during that stretch and 8-0 in third periods during their four-game losing streak.

"It's a 60-minute game, and 56 or 57 minutes isn't enough," said Stars forward Steve Ott. "For some reason we haven't been strong at finishing games lately."

It wasn't as big a collapse as the one in November, when the Stars blew a 4-0 lead late in the game and lost 6-5 in overtime, but the end result was the same - a disappointing defeat.

The Kings started their comeback on Saturday with with 3:01 remaining when Michal Handzus stole the puck from Trevor Daley in the Dallas zone and beat Marty Turco with a wrist shot to tie the game.

Just 55 seconds later the Kings took a lead when defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky scored with a blast from the left point.

And 47 seconds after that Handzus scored off the rebound of an Alexander Frolov backhand shot off the rush to round out the Kings' rally.

"We play OK for half the game and the other half, we're looking around and not competing," said Stars forward Mike Ribeiro.

The win gave the Kings, who have the worst record in the league, a 4-3-0 record in the season series against the Stars.

"Our fate has kind of been written," Los Angeles defenseman Rob Blake said. "We're out of the playoffs. We want a little respect and I think we got that today."

Said Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford: "We look at these games as our playoffs because the games are so meaningful [for opponents]. Dallas wants home ice in the playoffs and we're using the games to help our young players develop."

Brenden Morrow and Stu Barnes were the goal scorers for the Stars. Turco stopped 26 of 30 shots in net.

The Stars struck on their first power play at 13:08 of the first period when Morrow deflected Matt Niskanen shot from the point past Kings goalie Erik Ersberg.

The Kings bounced back to tie with a power play goal at 5:48 of the second when Blake scored off a rebound during a scramble in front of Turco.

The Stars regained the lead with a goal off the rush when Mike Ribeiro slipped a pass to Barnes, who roofed a shot from the slot at the 11:32 mark.

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