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The Los Angeles Kings fell to the Dallas Stars on the road yesterday, losing 5-2.
Los Angeles went with 11 forwards and seven defense in the game, scratching Brendan Lemieux in favour of Brandt Clarke.
The Kings found themselves down pretty early, with Roope Hintz one-timing a shot past Cal Petersen on a power play to open the scoring. The rest of the frame didn’t go much better, but despite the Kings being outshot by a huge 19-8 margin in the opening frame, they managed to escape the period down a single goal.
Los Angeles did manage to tie the game early in the second period, with Carl Grundstrom taking a long stretch pass from Kevin Fiala and while Grundstrom was stopped, Fiala managed to follow-up to score on the rebound. However, things really fell apart for the Kings after that.
First, Dallas capitalized on a power play, when Jason Robertson one-timed a shot past Cal Petersen to reinstate the Stars’ lead. Then only about a minute later, Tyler Seguin made a nice move to drag the puck around Alex Edler’s stick, then fired a shot past Petersen to double the lead. Then only 14 seconds later, Rasmus Kupari had a disastrous giveaway, with the puck getting right to Roope Hintz, who went in on a breakaway to score his second goal of the game, with three goals in just 1:30 making it 4-1 Stars.
Los Angeles did get one back after, with Arthur Kaliyev burying a puck in front on a power play. However, Dallas responded late in the frame on another man advantage of their own, with Joe Pavelski left alone in front to tap a puck past Petersen for another three-goal lead.
While the Kings may not have allowed a goal in the third period, that was due to Cal Petersen more than the team actually turning things around. They continued to give up great chances off brutal turnovers but Petersen didn’t let the game get out of hand. Regardless, the Kings still fell 5-2.
This was a rough one for the Kings, giving up 40 shots in the loss. While Cal Petersen allowed five goals and still holds a brutal .868 save percentage in five games this season, he made some great saves and really can’t be blamed for any of the goals against in the loss to Dallas.
Perhaps the biggest issues for the Kings were the disastrous turnovers and an ineffective penalty kill. Throughout the season early on, Los Angeles has been guilty of frequent, terrible turnovers and lapses. It’s not just one player (though there are frequent culprits like Sean Durzi) but many players on the team just losing the puck in bad spots, resulting in rushes the other way. It’s played a big role in many of the losses so far and the carelessness with the puck needs to be fixed quick.
The penalty kill also went just 1-for-4. Special teams definitely aren’t a strength for the Kings but when you’re pretty much unable to kill off a penalty, it’s going to make for a long game.
So the Kings are back at .500, after 12 games this season. However, they’ll have a good opportunity to get back in the win column tomorrow, when they face the Chicago Blackhawks in an important road game.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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