Boucher's three power play goals lead Stars past Kings 5-3

Friday, November 24, 2006

On a night when the Stars ended up needing some offense, the power play provided it. Philippe Boucher scored three power play goals and Sergei Zubov scored one as the Dallas Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-3 at the American Airlines Center Friday night.

"I would take it against any team, but it's always good to do against an old team," Boucher, who played for the Kings from 1995-2002, said of the hat trick on The Ticket's post-game show.

Boucher, whose father is battling cancer, is set to return to Canada Saturday to spend time with his father.

"Playing 60 minutes of hockey is an escape for me," Boucher said. "I'm going to go back and give [one of the pucks] to [my father]."

The Stars, who came into the game with the 30th ranked power play at home, were 4-7 with the man-advantage in the game.

The win was their third straight and improved their record to 16-6-0 on the season.

Jere Lehtinen, who returned to the lineup from injury, scored an empty net goal and Mike Smith stopped 22 of 25 shots to run his record to 5-1-0.

"It's been a pretty exciting week for me, getting a couple of wins in a row," Smith said. "It's a big confidence builder."

Mike Modano picked up two assists in the game and became the 42nd NHL player to reach the 1,200 point mark in his NHL career.

Captain Brenden Morrow also returned to the lineup from his groin injury, but did not last long. He played just two shifts before leaving the game. He did not return.

The Kings, who were 3-7 on the power play, lost their second straight game and third in the last four games, but did make a game of it Friday after falling behind 3-0 in the first period.

The Stars dominated play in the first period and scored three power play goals to take command of the game early.

The first power play goal came after Los Angeles forward Jeff Cowan took a roughing call for nailing Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas at the end of an icing play.

Just 33 seconds after the call, Boucher took a short pass from Robidas and beat a screened Kings goalie Mathieu Garon with a blast from the point. The time of the goal was 4:30.

Later in the period the Stars got 1:20 of five-on-three time and quickly capitalized. Twelve seconds into the five-on-three, Modano and Zubov played a little give-and-go and Zubov blasted a shot from the point past Garon at the 12:53 mark.

Just 26 seconds later, with Dallas now on a five-on-four power play, Boucher scored his second of the game with another hard shot from the point to make it a 3-0 game.

The Kings bounced back with a pair of power play goals in the second period to make it a 3-2 game. The first one came at 5:48 when Alexander Frolov sent a pass from the half-wall to Dustin Brown, who skated from the slot to the right faceoff circle and beat Smith with a wrist shot.

Brown struck again at 8:09 of the second when Rob Blake backhanded a pass to him and Brown scored from the side of the net.

The Stars extended their lead to 4-2 when Boucher notched his third goal of the game. With the Stars on the power play, Mike Ribeiro skated into the Kings zone, went to the half-half wall and set up Boucher, who scored with a slap slot from the point at the 11:00 mark.

The Kings pulled to within a goal with another play goal at 8:17 of the third period. Frolov scored during a scramble in front of the net. Kings rookie Anze Kopitar was on top of Smith as the goal went into the net after he was knocked into the Dallas goalie by Robidas.

Lehtinen sealed the deal for the Stars when he scored an empty net goal with 26 seconds left in the game.