Stars Show Heart, Get Power Play Goals from Robertson, Johnston Before Falling to Kings in OT

The Dallas Stars showed significant fight in their ongoing skid tonight, leaning on their top young forwards and a resurgent power play to earn a critical point, but ultimately fell just short. Adrian Kempe ended the contest quickly for the visiting Los Angeles Kings, scoring the overtime winner just 37 seconds into the extra frame to seal the Kings’ second straight victory, 3-2. For Dallas, Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston both capitalized on the man-advantage, forcing overtime after battling back from two separate deficits. While the game marks a hard-luck fourth consecutive loss for the Stars, the team’s ability to drive play and score crucial power-play goals against a strong Western Conference opponent offers a definite sign of improvement heading into the weekend.

Los Angeles Kings Lineup:

Kuzmenko – Laferreire – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Armia
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Malott – Turcotte – Perry

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

Dallas Stars Lineup:

Steel – Hintz – Rantanen
Robertson – Johnston – Bourque
Erne – Seguin – Blackwell
Hryckowian – Faksa – Bastian

Lindell – Heiskanen
Harley – Lyubushkin
Bichsel – Petrovic

Oettinger
DeSmith

With little time remaining in the opening period, Corey Perry scored the first goal of the game to put the Kings ahead 1-0 on a 5-on-3 power play at 1:12. Perry scored on the rebound of Kevin Fiala’s shot that ended up falling to Perry at the top of the crease, sending it past a sprawling Jake Oettinger.

Jason Robertson found his third goal of the season when he tied it up 1-1 on the power play in the second period at 15:02 when Roope Hintz got a hold of the puck from the Kings, turning around to make a quick pass to Robertson, who was just above the top of the left face-off circle, and fired a wrister past Darcy Kuemper. At 13:33, Cody Ceci scored his first goal of the season to get the lead back for Los Angeles when he took a pass from Adrian Kempe, who fired it behind the net, where Alex Laferreire stood behind to give him the puck, and Kempe took it, quickly passing it to Ceci, who scored from inside the blue line, his shot deflecting in off Mavrik Bourque’s stick.

Wyatt Johnston scored the second power-play goal for Dallas early into the third period, tying it up 2-2 at 17:28. Miro Heiskanen, who was along the right wall, passed to Mikko Rantanen on the right side behind the net, who handed it over to Hintz, but he was denied by Kuemper. Johnston set up at the back door, slamming the rebound into a wide-open net.

Only 37 seconds into overtime, Kempe called game, fluttering a snap shot from the edge of the right face-off circle past Oettinger after collecting a pass from Quinton Byfield for the 3-2 final.

Game Notes:

– Wyatt Johnston recorded both a goal and an assist, and Roope Hintz collected a pair of assists. …Johnston, who is 94-91–185 in 253 games played, has passed Steve Payne for the sixth-most points by a Stars/North Stars player before age 23.

– Jake Oettinger made a total of 22 saves for Dallas.

– Adrian Kempe picked up both a goal and an assist, and Quinton Byfield recorded a pair of assists. …Kempe’s nine overtime goals are now tied with both Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown for second on the Kings’ all-time list.

– The Kings have two wins in their past six (2-2-2).

– Darcy Kuemper made a total of 29 saves for Los Angeles.

– Corey Perry is the second-oldest player (40 years, 160 days) to score a goal with the Kings, following Larry Robinson (40 years, 317 days on April 14, 1992).