With the two teams scoreless late into the second period someone needed to force a mistake and take advantage, and it turned out to be the Stars' line of Steve Ott, Stu Barnes and Loui Eriksson that teamed up to do both.

After some good work on the forecheck by Ott and Barnes, Eriksson picked off a pass by Kings defenseman Brad Stuart inside the Los Angeles blue line, spun around and fired a shot on net, and Ott, who went to the net, deflected it past Jason LaBarbera to give Dallas that all important lead in the game.

"It's kind of see who is the first to crack and luckily enough they cracked first," Ott said on FSN after the game.

And this time around the Stars didn't crack against the Kings in the third period. It was a little more than a week ago that Dallas blew a 4-0 lead late in the game and ended up losing 6-5 in overtime. Not this time.

On Monday the Stars outplayed the Kings over the entire final 20 minutes, scored two more times to increase their lead and kept the door shut on the Kings' offense, which failed to produced a goal for the second straight game.

"The best part of that game was that I thought we got better as it went along," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "The third period was our best. We needed that to win the game, that's the bottom line. I think it's a motivator to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The Stars got another solid performance from all four lines and three of the lines chipped in with goals. The Mike Modano trio didn't, but did a nice job keeping the Kings' top line in check most of the night.

The defense corps had another strong game. And the Stars got another strong game in goal from Mike Smith, who stopped 22 shots for his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career.

"It's a 20-man effort," Smith said. "Everyone is doing his job. The forwards are coming back. The defensemen are making good plays out of the zone."

Smith wasn't tested a lot, but he came up with some big stops at key times. He's stopped 39 of 40 shots over his last two games.

"Smitty played well tonight," Tippett said. "He's done what he's supposed to do. It gives us some stability."

Special teams were again a big part of the Stars' success. The penalty kill was 3-3 and is now a perfect 11-11 during the first three games of this current homestand. The power play only got two chances, but cashed in on one of them. It is 6-10 over the past four games.

Despite all the turmoil that has surrounded the Stars recently, including that loss to the Kings back on November 10, the Stars have put together a nice little points run recent. They have points in four straight (2-0-2) and have points in six of their last seven (4-1-2). There's another big test coming Wednesday when Anaheim, which has been playing well lately, comes to town.

Stars coach Dave Tippett said that decision will probably come Wednesday morning.

'We'll go day by day," Tippett said, adding that the Stars are counting on both goalies.

"We need both guys to be very good to be successful," Tippett said.

Turco has already beaten the Ducks twice this season, allowing just one goal on 40 shots in the two wins. Smith has allowed just one goal on 40 shots in his last two starts.

"I'm going to enjoy this while I have it," Smith said. "I'm just going with the flow right now. The coach wants to keep [who starts] a secret as much as he can."

• Jere Lehtinen now has points in seven straight games (three goals, eight assists).
• The Stars have outscored their opponents 11-1 over the last seven periods of regulation play.
• Loui Eriksson's assist was his first point since opening night on October 3.
• The Stars swapped minor league defensemen with Tampa Bay Monday. Dallas sent Mario Scalzo to the Lightning in exchange for Bryce Lampman, who was assigned to Iowa.
• It will be known by late Tuesday morning whether any team has claimed forward Todd Fedoruk off waivers.