Friday, March 6, 2009

Los Angeles Kings 5, Dallas Stars 4 (OT)

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Just when it seemed like the Dallas Stars were on their way to two points at the Staples Center Thursday night, they started a parade to the penalty box, gave up two goals in the final 3:18 of the game and then lost 5-4 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Stars, who had a 3-0 lead in the second period and were still leading 4-2 with five minutes remaining, took four minor penalties late in the game to open the door for the Kings to rally.

"With our lineup right now we are relying on a lot of young guys, but we're relying on veteran guys to stabilize our group. In the third we've got [Mark] Parrish, [Stephane] Robidas and [Marty] Turco taking penalty after penalty the last five minutes," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "You're just shooting yourself in the foot and that's exactly what we did.

"They got some bounces at the end, but Marty was so tired he couldn't even crouch down. We brought it on all ourselves. It's a very disappointing loss and that's the way it is. That's all I've got to say."

The Stars took four penalties in a 3:08 span to give the Kings extended power play time, including five-on-three time. The penalties were:

Mark Parrish (hooking) at 14:28, which took the Stars off a power play

Stephane Robidas (hooking) at 15:06

Marty Turco (tripping) at 15:31

Mark Fistric (roughing) at 17:36

"I think it was just a matter of playing our game. We got away from it and took a lot of penalties that we shouldn't have and put ourselves behind the 8-ball. It's real disappointing," said Fistric, who was penalized for a punch to the head of Kings captain Dustin Brown near the Dallas net with Los Angeles already on a power play. "It's a fine line. You get caught up in the heat of the moment and you get into a pushing war. Unfortunately, I fell on the wrong side of it."

The Stars ended up giving the Kings a total of ten power plays in the game and Los Angeles cut the lead to 4-3 on a five-on-three goal by Michal Handzus, who had a hat trick in the game, with 3:18 remaining in regulation. That one came during the penalties on Robidas and Turco.

"We were down a couple of men for a long period of time," said Turco. "We made mental mistakes at the worst possible time."

The Stars almost made it out of the woods, but not quite. They had killed all the remaining Los Angeles power play time, including Fistric's roughing minor, but with the Kings goalie pulled and an extra attacker on the ice, Los Angeles forward Anze Kopitar fired a desperation backhand shot towards the net from the right wall that bounced off Robidas' skate and past Turco to tie the game with 14 second remaining.

"To be honest, I didn't know how much time was left on the clock," Kopitar said. "All I was thinking about was turning and throwing it right in front of the net and hopefully there would be a scrum. Luckily it went off the guy and through his legs."

"It was a bad bounce, but you've got to find those and be ready for them," said Turco.

Then in overtime, Handzus got a puck behind the net and scored on a wrap-around that bounced off Stars defenseman Trevor Daley and past Turco 1:31 into the extra session to give the Kings the win.

After a scoreless first period in which the Stars penalty kill and Turco came up big, Dallas rattled off three straight goals to take a 3-0 lead. Loui Eriksson scored off the rush on a nice feed by Mike Modano, Mike Ribeiro scored on a rebound off traffic and James Neal scored off the rush on a pretty pass from Fabian Brunnstrom.

The Kings got a power play goal from Handzus and an Alexander Frolov goal 33 seconds apart to make it a 3-2 game. Steve Ott scored off the rebound of a Ribeiro shot with 14 seconds left in the second to give the Stars a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.

The loss was the sixth in the last seven game (1-5-1) for the Stars, who wrap up their three-game road trip in Anaheim on Friday night.

"It's frustrating with the position we are in," Turco said. "It feels like every single point matters, and we will have a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow. Teams are all hard to play against, and we didn't play as well as we would've liked."

The Kings snapped a four-game losing streak with the win.

"We needed the two points, and we were scrambling," Handzus said. "It wasn't the best game that we've played, but we won. That's the most important thing right now."

Notes: Stars forward Jere Lehtinen missed Thursday's game with an upper body injury. He returned to Dallas to visit a doctor. He is listed as day-to-day. ... Center Brendan Morrison, claimed off waivers from Anaheim Wednesday, made his Dallas debut Thursday. He centered a line with James Neal and Fabian Brunnstrom. He had no points, an even rating and two penalty minutes in 13:33 of ice time.

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