LA Kings 3, Dallas Stars 2 (SO)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

After a three-game California road trip that saw them go 1-1-1 the Dallas Stars find themselves 5-7-3 and sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Division. The Stars missed a chance to move ahead of Los Angeles Tuesday, falling 3-2 in a shootout at Staples Center.

"I don't think any of us are looking at this road trip as a success," said Stars captain Brenden Morrow. "The other teams in our division are collecting points and we are kind of puttering around and hovering around the basement of the conference."

The Stars 13 points on the season had them sitting 13th in the Western Conference after Tuesday's games.

"We have to find a way to get points," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "The goal tonight was two points and we only got one."

The Stars and Kings, who have become a much better defensive team under coach Terry Murray, played a grind it out game Tuesday night and the Kings got the extra point in the shootout.

But the Stars lost their chance to get the two points in the game with some some power play late in regulation and early in overtime.

Wit the game tied late the Stars had a three-minute power play after a sequence that included Kings captain Dustin Brown getting a boarding major for a hit that left Stars center Mike Ribeiro bloodied and Morrow taking an instigator penalty for going after Brown.

But the Stars misfired on the lengthy power play, which included two minutes of four-on-three time in overtime and that led to the shootout.

"You're looking to get better opportunities. We didn't get any pucks through. We didn't create enough chances," Tippett said of the failure to capitalize on the power play.

Said Stars center Brad Richards: "That was our chance to win the game."

But they didn't and the Stars found themselves in a shootout for the first time this season.

After Wayne Simmonds scored to give Los Angeles the 1-0 lead in the shootout, Ribeiro returned to score on a dazzling move where he slipped the puck between his legs and then reached back with one hand to slide the puck past Kings goalie Erik Ersberg to force an extra round.

After Alexander Frolov beat Stars goalie Marty Turco five-hole, Ersberg stopped Modano to give the Kings their third straight win and push the Kings to .500 on the season (6-6-2).

"You know you played hard throughout the game and the 60 minutes, 65 minutes with the overtime, and you're able to come away with two points against a division team," Murray, the Kings coach, told the Los Angeles Daily News. "It was a very important game for us and when you can come away at the end of the night with a shootout win like that, there's no question that there's a lot of confidence there."

Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen, who returned to the lineup after missing the first 14 games of the season with a groin injury, scored in regulation for the Stars, who played well in all three games of their California trip but didn't make up any ground in one important area - points in the standings.

"Every point is magnified right now," said Tippett. "Our game is starting to come but we need to turn that into points."