I don't have the words. And I'm sure the rest of you don't, either.
The only thing I can surmise is that the Staples Center is just a House of Horrors.
Rewind back to November 10th, 2007, when Dallas seemed to have it on cruise control against the Kings up 4-0, only to surrender five goals within the span of just over seven minutes. They fought back to tie it and send it into OT that night, but lost on a bad goal by Anze Kopitar.
Tonight was almost a carbon copy, save for the Kings actually rallying in the second instead of the third. I'm sure the knee jerk reaction from many will be to blame this loss on the officiating. Afterall, the Kings enjoyed a 10-3 advantage in power plays, including some extended 5-on-3's late that helped the Kings come back and tie it.
If you want to go by a penalty by penalty basis through the entire game, I'm sure you could make a case that Dallas got the short end of the stick with the officiating.
But the bottom line is with the game still firmly in Dallas' control, the Stars unraveled. More to the point, Marty Turco became unraveled with the slashes and repeated punches to the back of Anze Kopitar's head with the Stars already shorthanded on a 4-on-3. Turco finally got nailed by the referee in the corner, LA scores to make it 4-3 on the two man advantage, and then Fistric throws in an extra an unnecessary shove on Dustin Brown to put the Stars back down two men.
Yes, Brown embellished the contact. But if Fisty doesn't lay an extra glove on him, that call doesn't get made. The Kings didn't score on that second 5-on-3 of the third or the 5-on-4. But it did lead to minutes of uninterrupted hockey and constant pressure in the Stars zone.
And with 13 seconds left in regulation, Dallas cracked by allowing the game tying goal on a shot that never should have gone in when Kopitar's prayer from the half boards was answered when it went in off Stephane Robidas and in.
And then came OT where Michael Handzus' tried a wrap around, was stuffed, and then threw the puck off Daley and into the net over Turco's right shoulder. Snakebitten? Sure. But Marty was also late getting over to the post and couldn't rise up to stop the shot.
That was a departure from earlier in the game where Turco was positionally sound in his crease and was able to stone Kopitar from point blank range. Even though Turco did well during those late penalties to keep the puck out, I do think be it fatigue or some other reason, Turco lost that part of the game and it definitely showed on Kopitar's tying goal and Handzus' winning goal.
The only saving grace from this one is the Stars were still able to pick up a point out of this one. And they won't have to stew over this loss for long as they'll hop aboard a bus and travel west towards Anaheim for a tilt tomorrow night with the Ducks.
But they let a golden opportunity to pick up two points and put themselves in position to sweep this trip out to California tomorrow night. Not to mention, the meltdown will overshadow some nice individual performances from Fabian Brunnstrom, James Neal, and Steve Ott.