The Los Angeles Kings continue to confound their fans as well as those who bet against them on a given night. Saturday, afternoon actually, they pulled off a win against the Dallas Stars, twenty points and eleven positions ahead of them in the Western Conference standings and playing their best goalie, Marty Turco.

And the Kings did it by playing from behind, overcoming numerous penalty calls including several five-on-three situations, and by winning in a shootout overtime (if that’s what you call it when teams have to go past the first three shooters to decide a game.) The question is, how?

“I think that when we know that we have to be at our best, we have the ability to raise our game to that level. And, uh, it’s a sign of immaturity when you’re not there. We’re going to concentrate on the singular challenges here and be sure that the group remains focused,” their coach commented afterwards.

He further explained, “We’ve said, hey—let’s not ever let our work ethic be questioned, ever. I thought the guys dug in their heels and worked hard tonight. I do think that when you work hard, and you have structure in your game, and you pay attention to the habits that you’ve got, it doesn’t guarantee a win, but it is the right formula, and we have to concern ourselves with doing the right thing, and laying the right foundation for this group so that they can win.”

Patrick O’Sullivan, who scored the shootout winner on a blistering wrist shot, said simply that the team wanted to forget the debacle of Tuesday, when they lost 7-0 to Nashville. “We knew how we wanted to play, and we were going to stick to the game plan throughout. That game [Nashville] was embarrassing for everybody, and we talked about that. We decided to move past it. The following day we had a good practice—hard—and we got ready for the Toronto game. Now, we’ll build on the things we did tonight. We’re happy with the win tonight—that’s a good team [Dallas].”

The game began the way a lot of Kings’ contests do—with penalties and quick scoring by the other team. In this case, two Kings were called at one whistle, one by each referee, for two-minute minors. Afterwards, Coach Crawford commented on that. “It’s not very often that you’ll get a call like we got against us to start the game.” He added, “They had no recourse but to call what they called on Brad Stuart [more later on this delay-of-game penalty in the third period], but the other two were tough ones to take.”

The first two Dallas goals were scored just sixteen seconds apart, the second coming at 3:36, and everyone in the building must have had the thought that this was going to be a long afternoon. It was, but not in the negative way that that sounds, as it turned out.

Again, the coach: “The goal that was disturbing from our standpoint was right after they score on the 5-on-3 to make it 1-0, and we had a bad gap, we made a poor change, and we allowed them to go up 2-0. That was one we were really disappointed and angry about. I was pretty voiceful about my feelings at that point, and I thought from that point on, guys got back into the game and battled on.”

The Kings responded with two goals of their own in the period, also quick together, at 9:06 and 10:13, and the stats at the end of the period showed them solidly in front of the Stars in several categories: hits (17-9), takeaways (4-0), and faceoffs won (14-7). The shots were even at twelve apiece, and the only area of weakness by the home team, aside from the fact that they’d drawn four minor penalties to Dallas’s zero, was that they had given the puck away ten times, and Dallas just five.

The second period was more of the same, though with the penalty situation reversed. The Kings had just one, and the Stars three, though the third was called at the 20:00 mark, hence to be served during the first two minutes of period three.

Each team logged six shots in the middle period, and the Kings scored once. A great hit behind the Dallas net freed the puck, which was then fed to Rob Blake at the blue line. He took a slapshot which Kopitar deflected in front of Turco. It was the All-Star’s eighteenth goal of the season, scored on the power play.

The Stars tied the game in the third period, at 7:23, during one of their 5-on-3s. The power play came on a bad call, a holding penalty on Tom Preissing, which was followed just after by a Dallas player high-sticking Rob Blake in the face, not called. Midway through the Preissing minor, Brad Stuart picked a puck out of mid-air and swatted it over the glass for a delay of game. It was on that combination of penalties that Dallas tied it.

The goal came from the point, hit defenseman Modry, and blopped up over LaBarbera’s head and into the net. It was one of those where the goalie didn’t see it, but froze in hopes of not knocking it into the net moving backwards. It went there anyway.

The game should have been over shortly after, when Krystofer (anyone’s parents hooked on phonics?) Barch passed the puck to Jeff Halpern wide open at the right side of the net. LaBarbera dove, his glove extended and legs flying up into the air behind him, and snagged it. The energy in the building after was high, and there were about eight minutes left. At that point, the Stars had 24 shots to the Kings’ 22. (It was to end 29-26 in favor of LA).

Goaltender Jason LaBarbera, who kept things tied 3-3, said simply: “I guess the biggest thing is staying positive and when you get down two goals you get negative and you can’t play that way. The last few games I’ve tried to stay upbeat . . . and not worry about what the score of the game [is].”

His coach said, “He made the game-saving save on the one 2-on-1 that we did give up. That was the one breakdown that we had, I thought in the entire game. That was a nasty chance, and it’s great to see Jason get rewarded with a win off that strong save that he made, a game-saving save.”

As mentioned, the game went into overtime, then a shootout in which each team scored once. Patrick O’Sullivan then scored on shot number four for the Kings, and Mike Ribeiro was stopped by LaBarbera on the last shot of the contest to give the Kings a 4-3 victory.

It was two points in the standings as well as a lesson to a team which has, at times, given up when trailing. And for fans, a delightful way to pass a Saturday afternoon.

The team now heads to Western Canada for a road trip which Crawford suggested would be good for everyone. “We’re going into a place where there’s so much attention to the great game of hockey; I do think that’s exactly what our team needs to continue with right now. We’re playing well; we’ve played well since Christmas with the exception of that one stinker. Now we’ve got the chance to go into a hockey atmosphere, and maybe have to wear winter clothes for a change, and for us, as hockey players and hockey people, it’s what most of us have grown up with. Maybe that will allow us to stay focused and continue moving forward with this group.”

Kings Notes
Michael Cammalleri, recovering from a rib injury, will travel to Canada with the team.

Brian Kennedy’s book Growing Up Hockey, with a Foreword by Kelly Hrudey, is available now at the TeamLA store inside Staples Center.