Kings Fight To a 3-1 Victory over Dallas

It wasn’t the prettiest game the Kings have played this season, but it was good enough to keep the Kings undefeated at home in their 3-1 victory of division rival, and sometime sparring mates as evidenced by this game, Dallas Stars.

“That was intense,” head coach Terry Murray said.

“Nothing’s going to be easy this year,” defenseman Matt Greene commented. “We knew that going in. That’s just the way it’s going right now.”

Greene did his part of making this a physical game getting into a fight with James Neal that netted Greene 17 penalty minutes: two for instigating a fight, five for fighting and a ten-minute game misconduct.

All of that in response to a hard shoulder Neal gave to Garret Stoll at the right point of the Dallas zone that had Stoll sprawled on the ice for a bit.

Kyle Clifford got into the fighting going off on Brent Segal in the second period. Davis Drewiske versus Steve Ott later in the second. Wayne Simmonds versus Mark Fistric in the third.

“It’s intense out there, a divisional game, 1-1,” Dustin Brown said. “The second half of the game was pretty physical.”

In addition the hit on Stoll that had the sold-out STAPLES Center crowd gasping, Adam Burish laid out Drew Doughty, helmet and all, on the boards late in the third period earning himself a five-minute boarding major penalty and a game misconduct. Both Stoll and Doughty bounced back and played in their following shift.

In that third period 12 penalties were called making everyone wonder if they were at the Honda Center for the night.

In between all of the noise, a hockey game was played.

The Kings, despite being 12-3-1 in their last 16 meetings against the Stars, had to come back in nine of their last 17 victories against Dallas dating back to Jan. 2, 2006.

The Kings’ first line of Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Scott Parse made sure they wouldn’t need to do that.

After getting the handoff from Parse, Kopitar went around the net dumped the puck in the crease which came out to Brown who stuffed it past Stars’ goalie Kari Lehtonen 6:13 in the first period.

The Stars evened the game late in the first when after Mike Ribeiro cleared the puck from the Dallas zone to center ice, Jamie Benn beat Doughty to the puck and got it past Jonathan Quick.

Justin Williams and Jack Johnson each got power-play goals in the third period overcoming the murky tempo of the period.

In the end it’s a win for the Kings. With a record of 11-3-0, the Kings have 22 points tying their club record in points after 14 games. They also tied the club record going 7-0-0 at home to start the season with the 1975-’76 and 1980-’81 clubs. They are the only team who have yet to give up a power-play goal at home. Not to mention they have the best record in the Western Conference.

So anyhow, here are some fights.