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Kings hand Stars crushing 3-1 loss, narrow in on playoff spot

greenegetty

James O’Brien

It’s not as if the Los Angeles Kings absolutely pulverized the Dallas Stars in their afternoon game, but maybe that’s symbolic of the just-good-enough gap that looks to separate playoff teams from early golfers in the Western Conference. The Kings are about as close to clinching a playoff spot as they can be without it being official, while a devastating six-game losing streak places the Stars in blind faith mode.

The 3-1 win is a bit misleading thanks to a Dustin Brown empty-net goal. Deep down, the difference ended up being a Matt Greene tally, which came thanks to an unfriendly bounce off of Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski’s skate.

Still, Los Angeles was able to dig deep and find a go-ahead goal and Dallas wasn’t, which has been the story of the Stars’ sad slide (aside from the 6-0 pasting they received from the San Jose Sharks on Thursday).

Los Angeles 3, Dallas 1

If you want an interesting snapshot regarding how elbow grease-heavy this game was, chew on this: neither team received a power play during the entire contest. (The only penalties handed out were matching roughing calls against Brad Richardson and Mike Ribeiro.) In an odd bit of symmetry, this is the first time two teams played 60 minutes without either side receiving a man advantage since April 2, 2010 (according to the Stars’ PR Twitter feed.)

While Dallas is on a six-game skid, the Kings are 9-1-2 in their last 12 games. Wayne Simmonds began the afternoon’s scoring, Greene scored the game-winner and Brown notched the insurance empty-netter for Los Angeles. Brad Richards scored the Stars’ only goal about a minute after Simmonds opened up the scoring.

All three non-empty-netters were goals were a bit flukey, as both goalies would want the first goals allowed back while Greene’s winner left Goligoski slamming his stick in disgust.

The Kings are extremely close to clinching a spot while the Stars are close to being out of the mix, but we’ll have a better idea of the specifics later tonight. Stay tuned.