Opening Night Rally

Stars rally from 4-0 deficit to top Kings 5-4

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Down four goals after 20 the first period? No problem. Not in the new NHL. After falling behind 4-0 after the first 20 minutes, the Stars rallied for a 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the American Airlines Center.

Philippe Boucher scored the game-winning goal with 4:46 left in the third period to cap off the rally that the saw the Stars score three times in the second period and twice in the third to win the game.

Sergei Zubov had two goals and an assist, Jason Arnott had a goal and three assists and Bill Guerin chipped in a goal and an assist for the Stars, who outshot Los Angeles 30-20 in the game.

"I think as the game went on we started to get a little stronger. You could see them fading a little bit. Their defense wasn't moving the way they were the first half of the first period," Stars captain Mike Modano said after the game. "Granted they got some lucky goals, some good looks early on. As the game went on we got stronger, they got weaker and we were able to take advantage of some of their mistakes."

The Kings felt they ended up handing the Stars the game on a platter.

"We gave them the game," Kings goalie Mathieu Garon told the Associated Press. "We were up four, but in the second period we took a couple penalties, the momentum changed and they were on their game."

It took two turnovers and two shots and the Stars found them down 2-0 just 1:34 into the game. After Lubomir Visnovsky picked off a Sergei Zubov pass, he skated into the Dallas zone and dropped the puck off to Jeremy Roenick, who beat Stars goalie Marty Turco with a shot from the right faceoff circle 1:02 into the game.

Just 32 seconds later the Kings struck again. After a Philippe Boucher wrap-around pass was picked off, Sean Avery scored off a scramble in front of the net to make it a 2-0 game.

Roenick scored his second goal of the game at the 4:18 mark of the first period. After getting decked by Brenden Morrow in the neutral zone Roenick skated back into the play and scored from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

The Stars had a chance to get back into it later in the first with a five-on-three power play for 1:37, but they couldn't cash in. They came close, but Mathieu Garon made a nice play to the keep the puck from crossing the goal line during a scramble in front of the net.

The Kings made it a 4-0 game with eight seconds left in the first. Pavol Demitra stole the puck from John Erskine behind the net and got it to Dustin Brown, who scored from the left faceoff circle.

The Stars coaching staff considered pulling Turco after the first period, but decided against it.

"Instead we challenged him and decided to see what would happen and we challenged the rest of the players to bail him out," Stars coach Dave Tippett told the AP.

"Everybody is a little uptight and tense," Modano said after the first period in an interview on the Stars broadcast network. "Just get the legs moving and going. Everybody is just standing still. It's like a deer in headlights. We just need to calm down and get back to working and things will happen for us. There's a lot of time left, hopefully we can chip away at it."

And things did happen for the Stars in the second period. The Stars scored three goals in in a 3:45 span to shave the Kings lead to just one goal.

Arnott got things started for the Stars with a power play goal at 3:03 of the second. After taking a pass from Zubov, Arnott ripped a one-timer from the left faceoff circle that beat Garon.

A little more than a minute later the Stars struck again. Niko Kapanen sent a pass from the boards to Zubov, who beat Garon with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle at the 4:17 mark.

Three-and-a-half minutes later the Stars scored on another power play chance. With Guerin and Brenden Morrow positioned in front of the net, a Zubov shot from the point beat Garon at 6:48 of the third to make it a 4-3 game.

The Kings came close to extending their lead to 5-3 late in the second, but Demitra's backhand shot on a shorthanded breakaway hit the post.

The Stars finally got the equalizer with 9:47 left in the third period when Guerin deflected a Stephane Robidas shot past Garon.

After Arnott won a faceoff, Boucher put a shot on net from  the right faceoff circle. Garon made the save, but the rebound bounced off the skate of a Kings defender and back past Garon.

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