Crowning achievement: Stars end losing streak against Kings with 4-1 win

Friday, March 17, 2006

Jason Arnott and Stu Barnes made sure there would no loss to the Los Angeles Kings this time around. Arnott had two goals and an assist and Barnes had a goal and two assists as the Stars snapped a five-game losing streak to the Kings with a 4-1 win at the Staples Center Thursday night.

"We're in a situation now to win our division, and we want to do that," Barnes told The Sports Network. "We just want to continue to improve as a team."

Mike Modano also scored for the Stars, who won for the third straight game and for the sixth time in the last seven.

Marty Turco stopped 24 of 25 shots for his league-leading 35th win of the season.

The Kings lost their third straight game and for the fourth time in their last five and fell 14 points behind the Stars in the Pacific Division and dropped to seventh place in the Western Conference.

Arnott got the Stars off and rolling with two goals in the first 5:45 of the game of stake the Stars to a 2-0 lead.

The first came 2:01 into the game. After a Philippe Boucher picked off a puck along the right boards, he put a shot on net and Arnott deflected it past Kings goalie Mathieu Garon.

Arnott struck again at 5:45 of the first on a rebound goal. After Brenden Morrow sent a pass from the goal line to the point, Sergei Zubov put a shot on net, the puck hit traffic and Arnott hammered the rebound past Garon.

The Kings had the only power play of the period, but could only get on shot on net and Turco easily handled that one.

The Kings got two more power play chances early in the second period, but couldn't cash in on either one as the Stars penalty killing was solid.

Less than 45 seconds after that second power play chance expired, the Stars struck again to make it a 3-0 game.

Arnott took a pass from Willie Mitchell and blasted a shot on goal from the top of the right faceoff circle off the rush and Barnes scored off the rebound from the slot at 5:43 of the period.

Barnes got a chance to make it a 4-0 game when he got a penalty shot, but his attempt to beat Garon five-hole failed.

After the Kings failed on their third power play chance of the period, the Stars got their first power play of the game and it took 12 seconds for Dallas to take advantage.

Modano took a pass from Jussi Jokinen and ripped a shot past Garon from the high slot. It was the 134th power play goal of his career, tying him with Brian Bellows for the Stars franchise lead.

It was also the 483rd goal of Modano's career, tying him for second place with the Kings Jeremy Roenick among U.S.-born goal scorers. Joey Mullen is tops with 502.

The Kings ended Turco's shutout bid at 10:56 of the third period with a shorthanded goal. After Modano lost control of the puck at the point, Sean Avery got a breakaway and then scored on the rebound of his own shot.

The Kings pulled goalie Jason LaBarbera, who had taken over for Garon at the beginning of the third period, with about 4:30 minutes to go in the game for the extra attacker, but were unable to get another puck past Turco.

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