Dallas took down Los Angeles 4-1 Monday night at home after dropping the last two games against the Minnesota Wild and the Florida Panthers.
Head coach Glen Gulutzan had been emphasizing the need for improvement on five-on-five play, and tonight, something clicked. Three different players scored three even strength goals, taking an important step in forming a more complete game.
“Your five-on-five has to be your calling card. And I think it’s been probably the weak point offensively of our team this year,” Matt Duchene said. “Our records great. We’re in a good spot, but you’re always looking for ways to get better, and that’s a way that we can take a step as being lethal team five-on-five, which we’ve been the last two years.”
After going scoreless in their last game, the Stars came onto the ice in the first period with some energy. They had a couple good looks early but could not manage to get the puck in the net. The Kings kept pace with Dallas and had their own collection of scoring opportunities as the period went on.
Mikko Rantanen managed to slide the puck in behind Darcy Kuemper, but the officials immediately called off the goal due to goalie interference as Kuemper went face down in the crease. He was helped off the ice, and Anton Forsberg replaced him for the rest of the game.
Oskar Bäck got sent to the box for interference with just a few seconds left in the period which allowed Los Angeles to enter the second period with a one man advantage. Dallas held off the Kings, but the penalties did not stop there. Radek Faksa and Brandt Clarke got into it and both went to the box, four minutes for high sticking and two minutes for interference, respectively. It was not long before Bäck was back in the box, this time for tripping.
The Kings were up two players, and as Casey DeSmith attempted to control the puck, Andrei Kuzmenko poked it free and into the Stars’ net to put Los Angeles on the board. Dallas got a power play of their own when Joel Armia got called for hooking, but could not score, despite some close chances. Jamie Benn tried to remedy this with a puck he shoved into Forsberg. But, the officials determined there was goalie interference and no goal on the ice.
With just over four minutes left in the second, Matt Duchene put an end to the Stars’ and his own scoring drought, after a pass from Rantanen. This is the forward’s first goal since returning after missing 24 games due to a concussion.
“I felt when I got out there, I felt like I was rolling and felt good,” Duchene said. “But sometimes you got to just be patient, stay with it… You obviously want to build on that, and it was good. I think we had a solid game tonight, and that’s a really good team over there. That’s a deep team, mature team. We talked about how good they are in 50-50, battles, and I thought we did a good job winning a lot of those tonight.”
Tied 1-1, both teams came into the third period eager to take the lead. But Bäck got there first and put up his second goal of the season when he deflected a shot from Faksa.
As the Kings became more desperate to even the score, the Stars seemed to settle in. They found rhythm and Rantanen stole a puck and shot it past Forsberg and put Dallas up two goals. Wyatt Johnston sealed the deal for Dallas when he put away an empty net goal in the last few seconds of the period.
“That’s the stingiest hockey team in the league, defensively. And we just came off the Florida game and, and we’re talking about staying with it right when it’s when it’s tight checking, it’s tight checking,” Gulutzan said. “And I thought our guys did a really good job of just staying with it, and finally started to break through.”
Dallas will look to continue the momentum as the team heads to San Jose on Thursday to take on the Sharks at 9 p.m. CT.