Lucic's goal lifts Kings past slumping Stars

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Kings looked every bit like a team playing its third game in four days at the start of their game against the Dallas Stars. They were flat, and the Stars were eager to end their slump.

Yet the Kings managed to overcome the slow start, and forward Milan Lucic scored the go-ahead goal 6:17 into the third period to give Los Angeles a 3-2 win at Staples Center on Tuesday.
"We just talked about getting the emotional level of our game up," Lucic said. "I talked about getting in on the forecheck and creating some zone time. It felt like it was kind one-and-done, or we weren't getting to the puck … bit of a slow start on our end, and it's going to happen at times, and it's just how you respond to it."
Lucic snapped a shot past goaltender Kari Lehtonen and into the left side of the net, breaking a 2-2 tie. The Kings pinned the Stars in their zone as Stars' forward Antoine Roussel lost his stick, and worked the puck to Lucic in the high slot.
Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and Vincent Lecavalier scored his third power-play goal in as many games for the Kings (29-13-3), who have points in 10 of 12 games since Christmas. Center Anze Kopitar had two assists, giving him 20 points in his past 12 games.
The Stars (29-13-5) are 1-5-2 in January and winless in eight straight road games (0-5-3). They finished 0-2-1 on a three-game trip through California.
Dallas coach Lindy Ruff pointed to the struggles of his top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Sequin and Jason Spezza; the trio came at the Kings hard in the third period, but Quick made 11 saves, several on high-quality chances. Quick also stopped defenseman John Klingberg on a breakaway in the second period.
"I think the biggest thing is our big boys haven't been converting," Ruff said. "It's tough on the rest of the lineup when they're not on the scoresheet. When they're on the scoresheet, we're going to win games. They're having a little bit of a tough time right now."
Dallas got a quick-response goal by Cody Eakin with 26 seconds left in the first period to tie it 2-2. Eakin grabbed Patrick Sharp's rebound and beat a sliding Quick. The rush started when Kings' defenseman Alec Martinez had the puck go off his stick and out to the neutral zone.
Eakin's goal came 33 seconds after the Kings scored to erase a poor start in which they did not have a shot in the opening six minutes but got goals from Lecavalier and Drew Doughty in a six-minute span.
Doughty's eighth goal came on a slap shot as teammate Tyler Toffoli crossed Lehtonen's path at 19:01. Lecavalier one-timed a hard shot to the left corner on the power play at 13:31. He has as many goals (three) in his past three games with the Kings as he did in his final 42 games with the Philadelphia Flyers, dating back to last season.
"I think a lot of people wondered what he was going to bring this team," Lucic said of Lecavalier. "A lot of question marks with him coming in. But you can tell he's having fun again. The coaches have put him in a position to succeed, and obviously that's something that he's earned."
The Stars grabbed the lead 3:03 into the game when a wide-open Ales Hemsky converted Mattias Janmark's pass for his fifth goal of the season.
Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell made his NHL debut and was a minus-1 in 14:01.
The Stars return home to host the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, the same night the Kings play the Minnesota Wild at Staples Center.
Roussel said Dallas' three-game homestand before the All-Star break is key for a team that has won once in eight games this month, six of which were played on the road.
"The teams in the League are getting better," Roussel said. "They aim at us. They look at the Stars and say, 'We're going to beat those guys.' At the start, we were a surprising team. I don't think it's like that anymore."