Los Angeles Kings 5, Dallas Stars 4 (OT)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Another game between the Dallas Stars and Los Angeles Kings produced quite a comeback Thursday night, and this time it was the Stars who did the rallying. They overcame a three-goal deficit in the third period, but fell 5-4 in overtime to the Kings at Staples Center.

The Stars, who have blown a few leads against the Kings in recent years, got off to sluggish start in the game and were down 4-1 entering the third period, but found a way to get back in the game.

"I cut our guys a little bit of slack. That's six games in nine nights for us," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "You have that in this league and you're going to have some sloppy points. You wish you didn't have them, but you are going to have them. We had them tonight and I just loved the way we battled back. It's a big point for us. It's unfortunate that we didn't get it all the way."

Jamie Benn started the Stars' rally when he scored with 13:02 remaining to make it 4-2, Mark Fistric scored 1:32 later to make it 4-3, and then James Neal scored his second goal of the night to tie it with 2:46 left in the third period.

But the Kings bounced back in overtime, getting a goal at the 55 second mark from center Michal Handzus, who got to a loose puck in the slot and beat Stars goalie Alex Auld.

"You never want to put yourself in a hole like we did, but it showed the character that we have to battle back," said Neal, whose two goals came on perfectly placed wrist shots from distance. "It's a tough loss, but it's a good character comeback for us."

The Kings built their lead on the back of center Anze Kopitar, who scored three goals in the game for his first career hat trick. Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Kings, who improved to 6-4-0 on the season.

“It feels great. It almost didn’t feel great -- the way the game ended -- but we got the two points and that’s the most important thing," said Kopitar, who is now tied for the league lead in points.

The Stars ran their road points streak to six games (3-0-3) and are now 4-2-4 on the season. The Stars finish their three-game road trip in St. Louis on Saturday.

Game recap

The Kings took the early lead when Anze Kopitar skated into the Dallas zone alone, got a around Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas and then slipped the puck past Stars goalie Alex Auld 3:54 into the game.

The Kings extended the lead to 2-0 with the teams playing four-on-four at the 15:37 mark of the first. James Neal lost the puck to Alexander Frolov in the neutral zone and Frolov sent a cross-ice backhand pass to Wayne Simmonds, who scored on a backhand shot.

But Neal got the goal back less than a minute later with the teams still playing four-on-four when he stole the puck from Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi at the Dallas blue line, skated down the left side and beat Kings goalie Jonathan Quick from the the left circle at the 16:16 mark of the first period.

In the second period there were four minor penalties called -- two on each team -- in less than three minutes and the Kings ended up scoring on some of the resulting power play time. With the Kings on a five-on-four advantage, Kopitar came out of the corner, went to the net and backhanded the puck past Auld to make it 3-1 Kings at the 7:17 mark.

A little more than two minutes later Kopitar struck again, skating from the left wall to the slot and backhanding a shot past Auld to make it 4-1 Los Angeles at 9:55 of the second period.

The Stars rallied to tie with three goals in the third period. Jamie Benn got things started when he beat Quick with a wrist shot from just beyond the top of the left circle with 13:02 left in the game.

Just 1:32 later, the Stars were within one goal at 4-3 when Mark Fistric took a pass from Brad Richards and scored off a shot from the blue line.

The Stars drew even with 2:46 remaining in regulation when Loui Eriksson dropped the puck off to Neal, who rifled a shot past Quick from just beyond the top of the right circle.

But the Kings got the game-winner in overtime when Michal Handzus got to a loose puck in the slot off the rush and blasted the puck past Auld just 55 seconds into the extra period.