Stars stumble out of break, fall 5-1 to Kings
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
This was not the game the Dallas Stars wanted coming out of the Olympic break. Instead of starting the stretch drive strong, the Stars stumbled Tuesday night in losing 5-1 to the Los Angeles Kings at American Airlines Center.
"We could have done everything much better," said Stars center Mike Ribeiro, who scored the team's lone goal. "We were just flat."
Said Stars coach Marc Crawford: "We're a team that needs everybody and we know that. And we had a few too many passengers tonight and we can't."
It was not a stellar night defensively for the Stars. The Kings scored five goals on 22 shots, getting some quality chances on Stars goalie Marty Turco and taking advantage.
"You certainly can't pin [the loss] on Marty," said Crawford. "He wasn't as good as their guy, but at the same time, we can't give up those low cycle chances that are tap-in goals. No goalie in the world is going to stop those goal mouth ones and they had two or three of those tonight."
The loss, which kept the Stars from achieving their first three-game winning streak of the season once again, also kept them from tying Detroit for eighth place in the Western Conference. The Stars are in 10th place, two points out of a playoff spot with 20 games remaining.
"It's really disappointing to lose a game like that," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "There's nothing we can do about it now, and we've got to start tomorrow with a big practice, and get ready for the next game."
Jarret Stoll, off a nice set up by Alexander Frolov, gave the Kings a 1-0 lead after one period. Los Angeles then blew the game open with three goals in the second. Frolov, Brad Richardson and Ryan Smyth all tallied in the second for the Kings, who moved into fourth place in the Western Conference with the win, their 11th in the last 13 games (11-1-1).
"I liked our effort. I liked our start to the game. The first period is what you like to see after a two week break," said Kings coach Terry Murray. "The focus, the concentration was good, power play, penalty killing was good. Jonathan Quick coming back gave us a good effort."
Quick made 31 saves for his league-leading 36th win of the season, which also set a Los Angeles franchise mark for wins by a goalie in a single season.
Ribeiro scored on the power play for the Stars to make it 4-1 and Anze Kopitar scored a late power play goal to make it 5-1.
The Stars wrap up their short two-game homestand when they take on the St. Louis Blues Thursday night.
| Game Recap |
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The Kings scored the only
goal of the first period, taking the 1-0 lead 5:44 into the
game. Michal Handzus chipped the puck behind the net to
Alexander Frolov, who who came out behind the net and slide the
puck across the crease to Jarret Stoll, who knocked the puck
past Stars goalie Marty Turco.
The Kings blew the game open with three goals in the second period to extend their lead to 4-0. The Kings made it 2-0 at 3:15 of the second when Frolov scored off the rebound of a Drew Doughty shot. Doughty set up the third goal, taking off from behind his own net, going the length of the ice, circling around the Stars net and setting up Brad Richardson, who scored off a one timer from in front of the net at the 11:33 mark. The Kings made it 4-0 with a power play goal when Frolov centered the puck and Ryan Smyth knocked it past Turco at 17:46 of the period. The teams traded power play goals in the third period. Mike Ribeiro tallied for Dallas, taking a pass from Brad Richards, splitting the Los Angeles defense and slipping the puck through Kings goalie Jonathan Quick's five-hole at the 5:19 mark. Kings forward Anze Kopitar scored on the power play with seven seconds left when his shot from the point deflected off the stick of Loui Eriksson and past Turco to make it a 5-1 final. |
| Quotable |
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"They did a good job,
especially the Handzus line, Frolov did a really good job of
cycling down deep. We chased a couple of times, at inopportune
times. When we did chase, it got us out of position and people
that had the task over covering up in behind didn't. Those are
things that we want to solve. We're usually pretty good in those
areas and they made the same mistakes. The difference was they
scored on their chances and we didn't." - Stars coach Marc
Crawford "The break kind of took our momentum away a little bit. We've just got to go back to practice tomorrow and regroup and come out on Thursday ready to go." - Stars forward Brandon Segal "He had a great game. He had the puck a lot, he made some really good plays. I remember him having the puck a lot here tonight. He was sharp, alert, he brought good focus again. I was clearly concerned about the Olympians coming back and I stepped back with their intensity, but everyone was on board and on page here tonight." - Kings coach Terry Murray on defenseman Drew Doughty "I felt good. I think I could have been sharper. I was fortunate enough to make some saves. I caught a few lucky bounces, but some of my decisions with the puck weren’t what they should have been. You watch video and you assess what went wrong and you move on." - Kings goalie Jonathan Quick |
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