Casey DeSmith made 27 saves as the Dallas Stars beat the visiting Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Monday.
Mikko Rantanen, Matt Duchene and Wyatt Johnston each had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who had lost their previous two games by a combined score of 9-2. Dallas’ Oskar Back also scored.
The Stars have earned at least a point in eight consecutive home games against the Kings (7-0-1), outscoring Los Angeles 33-15 over that span.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored for the Kings, who have lost three straight games (0-1-2) while scoring four goals.
Darcy Kuemper stopped all five shots he faced before Rantanen collided with him at 16:00 of the first period, forcing the Los Angeles goalie out of the game due to an upper-body injury. Anton Forsberg took over and saved 17 of 20 shots.
Back gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 6:12 of third period, when he deflected Radek Faska’s point shot past Forsberg from the low slot.
Rantanen increased the lead to 3-1 at 16:11 of the third. He entered the zone on the right side, cut to the middle and scored with a snap shot from the slot.
With Forsberg pulled for the extra skater, Johnston scored into an empty with 32 seconds remaining for the 4-1 final.
Kuzmenko gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead at 11:03 of the second period during a power play. Dallas won a faceoff in its own zone and the puck came back to DeSmith. As he looked up ice preparing to pass, Kuzmenko skated over and swept the puck into the net.
Forsberg made an excellent pad save to rob Mavrik Bourque at the left post at 14:35 of the middle period.
Duchene tied the score 1-1 at 15:42 of the second. Johnston carried into the zone and dropped the puck back to Rantanen along the right boards. Rantanen sent a diagonal backdoor pass to Duchene for the tip-in at the left post.
