Overpowered in LA:
Kings rally to beat Stars in OT

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The Los Angeles Kings found a new way to frustrate the Dallas Stars. The Kings used a power play goal late in the second and a power play goal late in the third to rally from a 2-0 deficit and then scored a power play goal in overtime to beat the Stars 3-2 at the Staples Center Monday night.

The overtime win gave the Kings, who are 8-1-1 in their last ten games,  four of four points in the home-and-home series with the Stars and moved them four points ahead of Dallas in the Pacific Division standings. Dallas has played four fewer games.

Jussi Jokinen and Jon Klemm scored for the Stars, who got just one of four points out of the two games and dropped to 3-4-1 in their last eight contests.

"We certainly deserved a better fate," Stars goalie Marty Turco told the Associated Press. "You want to close those kind of games out, but a bad bounce is all it takes. We've put ourselves in a position to be close to the top of our division by not letting things that we can't control bother us."

The Stars led 2-0 until the final second of the second of the period when Los Angeles scored on a five-on-three power play.

After taking a pass from Craig Conroy, Lubomir Visnovsky beat Stars goalie Marty Turco with a one-timer from the top of the right faceoff circle.

The Stars held that 2-1 lead until 27 seconds left in the game when the Kings and Visnovsky struck again with a power play goal.

With Antti Miettinen in the penalty box for hooking, Visnovsky scored off a blast from the high slot that hit Turco and barely made it over the goal line.

After Jason Arnott tripped Mike Cammalleri  in overtime, the Kings went on another power play. This time it was another Kings defenseman -- Mattias Norstrom -- who scored the game winner.

His shot from the right faceoff circle deflected off a stick and went into the net at the 2:29 mark to give the Kings their fourth straight win over the Stars.

There was no quick start or early lead for the Kings in this game. After the Kings got the first two power plays of the game, the Stars got one late in the first period and they took advantage.

Sergei Zubov sent a long pass to spring Jokinen on a breakaway and the Stars rookie fired the puck over the glove hand of Los Angeles goalie Mathieu Garon to put the Stars up 1-0 at 18:22 of the first period.

The Stars extended their lead to 2-0 at 9:40 of the second when Niko Kapanen sent a pass from the half-wall to Klemm, who beat Garon with a wrist shot from the slot.

Notes: The Stars recalled forward Mathias Tjarnqvist from Iowa on Monday and he played in the game. Forward Stu Barnes did not play due to his hip flexor injury.

Official Scoresheet | Official Super Stats