Stars outshine Kings;

Welcome to Southern California, where they give beach towels to their fans as they enter the hockey rink. It was a huge matchup today, where the first place (thanks Canucks for beating the Ducks yesterday!) Pacific division placed LA Kings and the first placed Central division Dallas Stars. The Kings are notoriously awful at afternoon games, perhaps after not properly waking up at such an early hour? Whatever the reason the Stars were a formidable foe. One that (with huge help from the referees) the Kings couldn’t overcome, taking them out of contention for the Western Conference winner.

What began as a fast paced, relatively evenly matched first period quickly dwindled into a Jonathan Quick clinic in which there

was an extended period of time in which the Kings didn’t even register a shot *attempt* let alone shot (from 8:08 to 15:36). Things could have been different. Early in Lehtonen gave up one of the fattest rebound I’ve ever seen from an impressive Trevor Lewis shot, only it was Dwight King at the front of the net who couldn’t get the rebound. Down at the other end Quick gave up an even bigger rebound and owes one of his defensemen dinner for a spectacular block. It seemed to invigorate the Stars however, who took control of the game and if not for some Jedi magic and some loud post pings, it would have been a whole different game. At 12:24 Kyle Clifford took a tripping penalty that should have spelled disaster for the Kings, but again Quick came to the rescue. Shortly after his penalty expired Dallas scored, only the goal was waved off for goaltender interference. The Kings got lucky; the Dallas player was certainly interfering with Quick, however Luke Schenn was also part of the play. Ultimately the coaches challenge didn’t show enough evidence that Schenn pushed anyone in to Quick, and the goal remained a moot point.

The next goal counted, and it was a Kings goal! Tanner Pearson capitalized on some skillful neutral zone play by Schenn and Rob Scuderi; he shot an absolute blast from the blue line that fooled Kari Lehtonen and the Kings were up 1-0. In true LA Kings fashion and quite frankly in a play much more reflective of how the period had been played, Jake Muzzin took a delay of game penalty (groan) and the Stars capitalized with 2.9 seconds remaining in the first period. The Kings challenged; they claimed (and Jim Fox agreed!) that the goal was offsides. The refs review didn’t agree, and the goal was allowed. The end of the period was almost a relief. With 18 SOG to 8, the Kings were lucky it was a tie.

The second period was much better for the Kings. Dallas started with more shots but there weren’t as dangerous, and yes, we still have Jonathan Quick. Dallas seemed to object to that, and took a few whacks at him after the whistle (there were quite a lot of after the whistle scuffles.) Andy Andreoff took offense and there was a coincidental minor, Andreoff and Antoine Roussel at 8:46, during which Jeff Carter notched the Kings second goal. He and Tyler Toffoli passed the puck back and forth too many times for Lehtonen to truly follow which one was the threat, and with the 4-on-4 Carter ended up very close to the net and easily snapped Toffoli’s pass into the net.

That’s when the referees started to take over the game. Dallas had too many players on the ice at 17:14, and the Kings, who were gaining momentum, should have had a full 2 minute advantage. Instead they called Drew Doughty for high sticking on Vernon Fiddler, when Fiddler was the one who high sticked himself. Doughty was behind him and not making contact, and it was Fiddler’s own stick he got in his own face. But sure, call Doughty for that. Quick continued to pull out his Jedi moves (no really – at one point the puck ricocheted on the goal line and out but never crossed it), keeping the Kings up 2-1 at the end of the second. In the third, they got even worse. Several high sticking calls including one on Brayden McNabb who’s eye nearly got taken out were ignored. During a power play they did actually call for the Kings Jamie Benn blatantly tripped Tanner Pearson, while he was taking a shot no less, and the 5-on-3 opportunity was ignored. That’s not to say that the Stars didn’t deserve their second goal. Or even their third, which happened with 4:58 remaining. But the Kings deserved better than the game the refs were calling, and at least one point by the end. Despite pulling Quick with a minute and a half wish remaining, they didn’t get it. Full credit to the Stars for stifling the Kings during that time, not allowing them any chances to even set up a play.

The Kings have 4 games remaining in the regular season, including one on Thursday night against the Ducks on Thursday that will likely determine who wins the Pacific Division. The playoffs are almost upon us!

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