FINAL – Kings 2, Stars 5 – Kopitar, Danault, McLellan

The LA Kings were unable to make it two-for-two to begin a three-game road trip, as they fell by a 5-2 final in Dallas on Tuesday evening.

The Stars got on the board early with the first period’s lone goal, a power-play tally, to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. With the Kings down a man, Dallas capitalized through forward Roope Hintz, who buried a one-timer from the left-hand circle off of a Jamie Benn centering feed, for his fourth goal of the season.

The Kings tied the game at one just over five minutes into the second period, however, as the new-look third line remained hot offensively. At the end of a shift, Kevin Fiala fed Carl Grundstrom on a stretch pass that led to a breakaway. Grundstrom’s shot was saved with the glove hand by Dallas netminder Scott Wedgewood but Fiala followed up and whacked home the rebound for his third goal of the season.

Dallas then turned the game on its head with three goals in a span of 91 seconds to open up a 4-1 lead midway through the second.

First, the Stars scored their second power-play goal of the evening, as Jason Robertson one-timed home a shot from the right-hand circle as the hosts regained the advantage. Just 1:17 later, Dallas struck again as Tyler Seguin dragged the puck onto his forehand and snapped his shot from the slot past Kings netminder Cal Petersen. The hosts made it 4-1 just 14 seconds later, as Hintz scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway.

The visitors buried a power-play goal of their own late in the second period to pull one back after the three against. After the top line drew a penalty with a strong offensive-zone shift, the second power-play unit converted, as Arthur Kaliyev scored for the second straight game, cleaning things up at the back post. Forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault tallied the assists off a strong sequence.

A third power-play goal of the game for the hosts pushed Dallas to a three-goal advantage heading into the second intermission. After the Kings were unable to clear their zone on a couple of attempts, Dallas capitalized through Joe Pavelski, who received the puck off a skate and slotted home at the back post for his fifth goal of the season.

Neither team scored in the third period, as the Kings fell by a 5-2 final.

Hear from Anze Kopitar, Phillip Danault and Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Anze Kopitar

Phillip Danault
On taking penalties early tonight and how it set the team back
It definitely got us in trouble right away. We can’t do that because we knew they were fresh, they had two days off and we definitely have to be better and more careful with that. Yeah, they definitely cost us the game.

On what was lacking on the second half of a back-to-back
Execution. They were playing better and faster than us and also the penalties got us, lots of penalties. We couldn’t find a way to get it done and the whole game was like that.

On the disappointment tonight, coming off big wins over Toronto and St. Louis
Yeah, especially because we know how good we can play and how good we can be as a team. We want to improve every game and on a back to back, it’s always a great opportunity to steal some points. Obviously a disappointing ending tonight.

Todd McLellan
On the start to the game tonight, and managing things early on
Put it this way, the start wasn’t what we wanted and if you don’t have any legs, you better have your brains and we didn’t have either. That makes it real tough night, so that’s going to lead to penalties and the penalty kill did not get it done. We had it our tape numerous times to clear and it didn’t come out. With that type of firepower and that type of power play, it’s going to end up in your net, so that’s obviously a concern in tonight’s game. More concerning for me is the back to back and not being able to manage it real well with the mental part of the game. Anticipating where pucks are going to go, covering in the right situations. We didn’t do a good job of managing that.

On what was missing on the second half of a back-to-back tonight
You know, you have to give Dallas credit they knew that we were playing back to back. I’m sure they weren’t happy with their last performance but they really skated well. They were much quicker, much cleaner than we were and they forced us to play long. We wasted a lot of energy chasing them all over the place. What energy we had and what hockey sense we were willing to use was wasted quite early by chasing them all over the place.

On if he felt things had maybe calmed down when the Kings tied the game at one
Well, we got a chance our goaltender played well in the first period. We talked about it, we’re down one but we’re still in the game so we’ve got to be thankful for that. I thought when we came out in the second, we got back to probably what we were supposed to be, created a few opportunities, scored on the powerplay but the three goals bang, bang, bang really put a dagger in us. Those are preventable but not tonight.

On the decision to go with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen tonight
Well, we decided to go 11 and 7, we wanted to play that. We wanted to get Clarkie into a game and we thought it would be good idea.

*Additionally, Todd McLellan confirmed that Brandt Clarke took a stick to the face, but did not have a further update as of the post-game press conference.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala extended his point streak to five games, as he scored his third goal of the season in the second period.
– Arthur Kaliyev scored his second goal in as many games, his fourth goal of the season in total.
– Carl Grundstrom collected a point for the second straight game, with an assist on Fiala’s goal.
– Viktor Arvidsson earned an assist to extend his point streak to three games. Arvidsson has six points (2-4-6) over his last five outings.

The Kings are not scheduled to practice tomorrow, coming off the back-to-back, and will return to the ice on Thursday morning in Chicago.