Gameday: Saturday, 10/14
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Dallas
Los Angeles 9:30PM 27 W 4 - 1  

Stars Down Kings Again, 4-1

          FINAL  1 2 3 T
         Dallas   2 2 0 4
Los Angeles   0 0 1 1
DAL: RIBEIRO, M. (PPG, 13:44 in 1st), MORROW, B. (PPG, 15:02 in 1st), LEHTINEN, J. (12:18 in 2nd), MORROW, B. (PPG, 13:14 in 2nd)  
LAK: CAMMALLERI, M. (PPG, 17:17 in 3rd)  

  


By John Tranchina

The Dallas Stars used superior special teams and two goals from captain Brenden Morrow to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Saturday night at the Staples Center. The victory improved the Stars' record to 4-0-0, their best start since opening 1996-97 with six straight wins. It was the second straight 4-1 win over the Kings in LA, as the Stars triumphed by the same score Thursday night. After going just 1-for-14 on the power play in their first three games, which ranked 26th out of 30 teams in the NHL, the Stars scored three man-advantage goals in the first two periods. All of them were set up by slap shots from the blue line by defenseman Stephane Robidas, who earned a career-high three assists.

Newly-acquired forward Mike Ribeiro also contributed three points, scoring his first goal as a Star and adding two assists, all on the man-advantage as well. Overall, Dallas was 3-for-9 on the night.

"I've been lucky and had a few good bounces, but Ribeiro made a few amazing plays out there for us," Robidas said. "I'm not going to get three points every night, and I know I'm not going to get all the power play time, so when I get it, I'll enjoy it and do my best to take advantage of it."



Who had the Stars play of the game?

  Mike Ribeiro's first period goal

  Brenden Morrow's first period goal

  Jere Lehtinen's second period goal

  Brenden Morrow's second period goal

  Marty Turco's save on Frolov in the third period



"We played pretty simple with the power play, getting the puck to the net and taking advantage of our opportunities," added Ribeiro, in his third game with the club after missing the opener due to immigration delays coming in from Montreal. "Each game for me has gotten better because it's a new team, new players, and it's great to get a win as a team."

Goaltender Marty Turco had another excellent outing, making 24 saves to register his 141st career victory, tying him with Gilles Meloche for third place on the franchise all-time wins list. On the season, Turco has only given up five goals in four games, and his 1.25 goals against average leads the entire NHL, as does his save percentage of .957. His four wins are also tops in the league.

Dallas also killed off 15 consecutive Kings power plays over the two games until Michael Cammalleri beat Turco with a wrist shot from the slot with just 2:43 remaining in a game that had been long since decided.

"I could care less about the shutout, because all I care about is that it was a great win for us," said Turco, who still sits at 24 career goose eggs. "We have been stressing that we want to be a strong unit together and I think that's showing on the ice right now. We're getting shots through, paying the price in front of the net like Brenden Morrow, and we're happy with the total team win we got."

Dallas scored goals 56 seconds apart in the second period to transform a close 2-0 game into a 4-0 blowout. Winger Jere Lehtinen connected on his first goal of the season with a wicked wrist shot from the slot that zipped past Kings goalie Mathieu Garon's glove hand and hit off the underside of the crossbar. Lehtinen converted a pretty cross-ice pass from Jussi Jokinen on a 2-on-2 rush at 12:18.

On the subsequent face-off at center ice, the Kings' Kevin Dallman was whistled for hooking, and the Stars went on the power play. Morrow deposited his second of the night past Garon, sweeping the juicy rebound of a Robidas slap shot in off the post. It was the third straight game Morrow has scored a goal.

Things got a little ugly after that, as Los Angeles played a lot more physical. With 2:45 left in the second, LA's Derek Armstrong hit Robidas with a blatant stick to the head, and as play continued on the delayed penalty call, Sean Avery elbowed Stu Barnes, and chaos ensued as Matthew Barnaby tried to get at Avery and everyone on the ice paired off. Robidas and Armstrong ended up in a drawn-out fight that featured numerous punches landing. Robidas was even taken down, but he would up regaining his footing to continue the bout.

There were a few more minor altercations after that, and everyone seemed a bit on edge for the remainder of the game.

Ribeiro got the Stars on the board with the first of two power play goals in the first period. Robidas' shot from the left point deflected in off Ribeiro's skate at the top of the crease, and ricocheted past Garon at 13:44. Robidas made sure to retrieve the puck out the net as a souvenir to commemorate Ribeiro's first goal with the Stars.

Just 1:18 later, the Dallas power play unit struck again. This time, Robidas' blast was expertly re-directed in by Morrow. Standing about 10 feet in front of the goal crease with his back to the net, Morrow managed to get his stick on the shot and change its path just enough to get it past Garon.

"Our second power play unit hunted loose pucks and got them to the net and were rewarded," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "A guy like Robidas played pretty good and really earned some power play time tonight. Guys like Robidas, Ribeiro and (Antti) Miettinen played well with the puck tonight. We made some strides on these two games here, but we still have some work to do."

The Stars are back in action again Sunday night, traveling down the freeway to take on the Anaheim Ducks at 7 pm (My27). It will be their third game in four nights against a Pacific Division opponent, and a rested one at that. The Ducks, 3-0-1, have been off since losing in a shootout to the New York Islanders Wednesday night.

"It was good to come in here and get four points," Morrow said of the back-to-back battles with LA. "Those are big points for us. We have our sights set high this year and we have to continue to play hard and do the little things like we did tonight."

STARGAZING



Turco fell 2:43 short of his 25th career shutout. He has now gone 42 appearances since his last whitewash, a 3-0 win over St. Louis on Dec. 29, 2005. He is third on the Stars' all-time list, two shy of longtime North Star Cesare Maniago.

The Stars seemed to be making progress in their quest to reduce the number of power plays they allow the opposition, but with five third-period penalties, they still put LA on the man advantage eight times. They have now averaged 8.5 times shorthanded in the four games this season. Four of the five goals they have surrendered thus far have been on power plays.

Forwards Eric Lindros and Stu Barnes each had three-game point streaks snapped in the game.

Center Jeff Halpern won 11 of 17 face-offs on the night, after going 10-4 in the previous game against the Kings for a stellar 21-10 mark over the two-game set.

The Iowa Stars also ran their record to 4-0-0 on Saturday night with a 4-3 win over the Houston Aeros. Vojtech Polak, Mike Green, Loui Eriksson and Joel Lundqvist scored the Iowa goals. Goaltender Tobias Stephan made 24 saves en-route to his first North American professional win. Rookie defenseman Vadim Khomitski recorded an assist for his first point as a pro. Junior Lessard got two assists, and has scored in all four games for Iowa (3-5-8).

I think the Stars will do well this year and go farther than they did last year. It definitely looks, so far anyways, that they will have a great year again.

Dallas is whooping Anaheim through 2 periods. Anaheim just can't get their speed going through the neutral zone and Dallas has taken advantage of a series of penalties on the Ducks.