FINAL – Kings 2, Stars 6 – Danault, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their seven-game point streak come to an end tonight, as they began a three-game roadtrip with a 6-2 defeat against the Dallas Stars on Friday evening at American Airlines Center.

The Stars opened the scoring inside the game’s first five minutes, with California native Jason Robertson collecting the goal. Off the rush, Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper tried to steer a shot from defenseman Thomas Harley but the rebound went directly to an uncovered Robertson at a sharp angle, from which he buried for the goal, his 25th of the season.

Just over two minutes later, the Kings answered back, as forward Warren Foegele made it three straight games with a goal, equalizing the game at one apiece. Forward Phillip Danault, stationed directly in front of the Dallas net, corralled the puck in front and showed terrific composure at the top of the crease to hit an open Foegele at the back post for the tap-in goal, his 17th of the season.

After Kings forward Tanner Jeannot was assessed a four-minute penalty for high sticking, Dallas pulled back ahead with a power-play goal. Forward Matt Duchene made it a 2-1 game as he drove the net and redirected a Roope Hintz pass past Kuemper and in for his 24th goal of the season. The goal came with just one second remaining on Jeannot’s penalty, which kept the Kings on the penalty kill for the entire second two minutes.

Despite digging in and getting though the kill, the Stars scored just seconds later, opening up a 3-1 advantage. Though Kuemper made the first save on a shot by defenseman Esa Lindell, forward Logan Stankoven collected the rebound to Kuemper’s left and buried his eighth goal of the season, coming at even strength, to put the hosts ahead by a pair in the opening period.

After forward Trevor Lewis took a tripping penalty early in the second period, Dallas made it 4-1 with their second power-play goal of the night. Harley, stationed at the center point, sent a shot towards the net, with a double screen in front of Kuemper. The second player, forward Wyatt Johnston, got the deflection on the puck, putting it into the back of the net as the Dallas lead expanded to three goals.

Off a faceoff win, the Kings pulled a goal back late in the second period, moving to within 4-2 at the intermission. With Danault winning the draw, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov’s shot was stopped and swatted into the corner by Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, right into the path of forward Trevor Moore, who took it around the back of the net and scored on a wraparound for his 11th goal of the season, as the Kings moved back to within a pair.

Once again, the hosts scored an early goal, this time in the third period, to restore the three-goal advantage. After the Kings couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone up the left-wing boards, a shot from Hintz was stopped by Kuemper, but Stankoven was once again stationed directly to the left of the goal to collect the puck. He pulled it onto his forehand, around Kuemper, before finishing on the backhand for his second of the game and a 5-2 lead.

With the Kings on the power play, Dallas put the icing on the cake with a shorthanded goal to make it 6-2. After the Kings disconnected on a pass from low to high, Stars forward Sam Steel went in alone the other way, deked to his backhand and placed his shot underneath the crossbar and in for his sixth goal of the season and a four-goal lead for the hosts.

Phillip Danault

Jim Hiller
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
Yeah, tough one. Can’t take a double minor, that hurts. It’s an accident, but that changed the game.

On giving up what essentially amounted to three goals on unnecessary penalties
They’re a good team, so you’ve got to play them hard and clean, play them tight. When the power play is going good and you give them those opportunities, in their building, thuy haven’t been here a month, the place was full, that’s where you shoot yourself in the foot. You can ask your penalty kill to kill them all, but it’s probably not going to happen.

On giving up the bulk of the goals tonight in netfront situations
It’s combination of both [what the Stars did and what the Kings did]. They do that as well or better than anybody in the league and we clearly weren’t up to the challenge, physically, to match them. Again, give them credit. We actually started alright until the penalty. For me, we were alright, in the game, and then after that, they just took it away from us.

On the team’s performance on the power play tonight
We did have a few looks off the rush, off the entries, but you’ve got to make plays under pressure. When there’s a chance to make a play or when you’re under pressure, you have to make a play and that’s throughout the league. That’s not just our power play, that’s every power play. Tonight, in those situations, those guys did and we haven’t and we haven’t for a long time, consistently. Those are the guys that are on the ice, the best power-play players you can have.

On what he saw tonight from the second unit specifically tonight
I thought they attacked the net pretty good. It was simple. They entered pretty well, I think you’ve got to start with that and then they just brought the puck to the net, banged it around. There wasn’t sauce passes and one-timers, it was just at the net, direct and scrambled and missed a couple good looks from in tight.

On getting two goals tonight from the Foegele/Danault/Moore line and their recent play
I do, I think they’ve been good for a while now. Mooresie’s kind of found his stride, scored a great Mooresie goal, a wrap around, which is under the goal line. Foegs is usually doing that too and then Foegs’ goal. nice play by Mikey and Phil. Those guys, I thought were pretty dangerous most of the night under the goal line and that’s basically how you have to play Dallas anyways. It just wasn’t enough top to bottom.

Notes –
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his 17th goal of the campaign, finding the back of the net in all three of the Kings’ matchups against the Dallas Stars this season (3-1=4). The forward extends both his goal and point streaks to a third consecutive game (3-1=4), dating back to Monday against Vegas.
• Per NHL PR, Foegele is the fourth King in the past five years to post a goal streak of that length, joining Phillip Danault (5 GP & 3 GP in 2021-22), Kevin Fiala (3 GP in 2022-23) and Andreas Athanasiou (3 GP in 2020-21).
• Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) tallied his 11th goal of the season, his third goal in his last three games, dating back to Monday’s win against the Golden Knights.
• Moore’s goal tied Matt Nieto (87) for the fourth most goals by a player born in the state of California, trailing only Auston Matthews (389), Jason Zucker (214) and Jason Robertson (158), per NHL PR.
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) recorded his 26th assist of the season, his third assist against the Dallas Stars in his last four periods of play against the club, dating back to Feb. 7 at Crypto.com Arena
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) collected his 10th helper of the campaign, his first career point against Dallas.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow in St. Louis. The team will return to the ice tomorrow evening against the Blues at 5 PM Pacific at Enterprise Center in Missouri.