DeSmith Shuts Down Kings, Stars Cruise to 4-1 Win

 

The Stars earned a crucial victory on home ice, defeating the Kings 4-1 on Monday night to break a two-game slide. It was a complete team effort, highlighted by a dominant offensive spread, with goals coming from Matt Duchene, Mikko Rantanen, Wyatt Johnston, and Oskar Back. Goaltender Casey DeSmith was stellar, providing the reliable netminding the Stars needed to lock down the win and hand the Kings their third consecutive loss. For the Kings, the defeat was compounded by bad luck: starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper was forced to leave the game early in the first period due to an injury, having made only five saves. While Andrei Kuzmenko scored the Kings' lone goal, the team was unable to generate enough offense to support relief netminder Anton Forsberg, resulting in a frustrating outcome for Los Angeles and a necessary, morale-boosting win for Dallas.

Los Angeles Kings Lineup:

Kuzmenko - Kopitar - Kempe

Fiala - Turcotte - Moore

Foegele - Laferriere - Armia

Malott - Helenius - Perry

Anderson - Doughty

Edmundson - Clarke

Dumoulin - Ceci

Kuemper

Forsberg

Dallas Stars Lineup:

Steel - Johnston - Rantanen

Robertson - Hintz - Benn

Hryckowian - Duchene - Bourque

Back - Faksa - Blackwell

Lindell - Heiskanen

Harley - Lyubushkin

Lundkvist - Petrovic

DeSmith

Oettinger

After a scoreless first period, Andrei Kuzmenko opened the scoring to give the Kings a 1-0 lead for his fifth goal of the season right off the face-off when Casey DeSmith got the puck. Kuzmenko skated right in after Miro Heiskanen passed DeSmith, and swatted the puck in between the pads of DeSmith on the power play at 8:57 of the second period from close range. Matt Duchene tied it up 1-1 at 4:18 with his second of the season, but his first goal and point in five games after he missed 24 games due to a concussion. He got behind Alex Turcotte and Drew Doughty after charging the crease, and scored off Mikko Rantanen's pass.

Oskar Back put the Stars ahead 2-1 for their first lead of the night, redirecting a shot from Radek Faksa from the blue line, scoring on a one-timer at 13:49 of the third period. It was his first goal in 22 games. Later in the period at 3:49, Rantanen picked up his 14th goal of the season, recording his second point of the game when he put a snap shot past Anton Forsberg from the slot off the rush before Wyatt Johnston struck the empty Los Angeles net for the 4-1 final with 32 seconds left in regulation.

Notes:

- Casey DeSmith made a total of 27 saves for Dallas, and Anton Forsberg stopped 17 of 20 shots on goal after replacing Darcy Kuemper, who made five saves before leaving with an upper-body injury. ...Kuemper was in a collision with Mikko Rantanen in the first frame at the 16-minute mark. He took an elbow to the head, and before going back to the locker room, he was down on the ice for several minutes.

- Matt Duchene, Rantanen, and Wyatt Johnston each had two-point nights, picking up one goal and one assist. ...Since Kent Nilsson (32 GP in 1986-87, Rantanen is the fastest player in Dallas Stars/North Stars history to reach 30 assists.

- The Stars are 22-7-5.

- The Kings' four-game point streak ended (2-0-2) in their third straight loss (0-1-2).