The Dallas Stars may have taken a step forward Thursday night in terms of overall play from their last three losses — and it was enough to secure them a point — but it couldn’t put them back in the win column.
The Stars ended a three-game pointless streak but dropped their fourth consecutive game, falling 3-2 to the Los Angeles Kings in overtime at home Thursday.
Despite trailing twice, the Stars’ power play converted twice to force overtime. But an odd-man rush developed in overtime, and Adrian Kempe buried the game-winning goal for Los Angeles.
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“I thought we played well,” Stars forward Jason Robertson said. “They got the last laugh.”
After a sluggish last two games, the Stars jumped out to a better start Thursday. They held an 8-5 shot advantage in the first period with decent scoring chances.
But a late cross-checking penalty on Mikko Rantanen and a high-sticking call on Ilya Lyubushkin during the penalty gave the Kings 35 seconds of 5-on-3. They capitalized, with former Star Corey Perry scoring late in the first. Perry also drew the high-sticking call, though it appeared he embellished the call significantly.
The Stars’ penalty killing has fallen short of expectations as of late. Dallas finished 2 for 3 on the PK Thursday, now killing just 65% of penalties this season.
The Stars were able to respond early in the second on a power play of their own when Robertson scored from long range.
But Dallas’ lead held for just 1:29. Another former Star, defenseman Cody Ceci, who left for Los Angeles in free agency over the summer, took a shot that deflected off Stars forward Mavrik Bourque and in.
Los Angeles nearly made it 3-1 later in the second period when Alex Laferriere had a wild deflection, but upon review, the officials determined he played the puck with a high stick, so it was taken off the board.
The Stars managed to force overtime with a second power play goal early in the third period. Wyatt Johnston scored off a rebound to improve Dallas to 7 of 22 on the power play this season.
But Dallas couldn’t do enough at even strength to secure the win.
“Players get really hard on themselves for the outcomes, maybe not scoring or producing or missing a shot,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “As a coach, you try to take a little bit more of an objective view of it. I liked our game. I didn’t like the score.”
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger finished with 22 saves, while Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper had 29 saves.
The Stars, now 3-3-1, will try again to snap their losing streak Saturday at home against the Carolina Hurricanes.
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