Stars Look to Extend Kings' Road Misery

FRISCO, Texas -- Later today, the Los Angeles Kings will conclude a six-game road trip against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. So far, the Kings are just 1-3-1 on this trip after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Islanders Saturday and have scored just six goals the entire trip.
   
Los Angeles (26-19-11, 63 points) will be facing a Dallas team (28-23-3, 59 points) that heads into tonight's contest after getting three of a possible four points in a quick, two-game trip to Columbus and Buffalo. The Stars fell 3-2 to the Sabres on Friday night in a shootout but still picked up a point in Buffalo and came within seconds of getting their first win in the second game of a back-to-back this season.
   
But now, Glen Gulutzan's club is squarely focused on extending the Kings' current road misery and scoring woes.
   
"Sounds like us (a team having problems scoring goals)," Gulutzan said. "They have a little bit of defensive identity in their game. We have to be defensively good against them and keep it tight against them. But they have guys that can score over there -- (Justin) Williams and (Anze) Kopitar and (Mike) Richards. They've got guys that can put the puck in the net."
   
Dallas will be without veteran defenseman Sheldon Souray for a second straight game.
   
"Yeah, he's got a bruised foot, not broke or anything, kind of same thing (Robidas) had there -- hard shot in the foot," Gulutzan said. "There's probably some spider cracking in there. I would say he's day-to-day."
   
However, the good news is that in Friday's loss to the Sabres, Mark Fistric delivered a strong game in Souray's place. Fistric will get the nod and again be paired up alongside rookie Philip Larsen against the Kings.
   
"He was physical, cleared the front of the net and was a hard to play against guy," Gulutzan said of Fistric's performance in Buffalo. "I thought he played a very good game."
   
Kari Lehtonen will make his fifth straight start between the pipes for Dallas, who will pretty much roll out the same lineup as they did on Friday against the Sabres. The one change will be on the fourth line, where Toby Petersen is most likely in for Jake Dowell.
   
Tonight will mark the sixth and final meeting between the Stars and Kings. Dallas has taken three straight against Los Angeles after dropping the first two games of the season.
   
All but one of the previous meetings this year have been decided by one goal and Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski expects a similar hard-fought contest tonight.
   
"Every time we play these guys, it's always a tight game. They're usually 2-1, 1-0 games," Goligoski said. "We want to make them work for everything they get tonight."