Pheonix Copley made 28 saves to continue his torrid start and the Los Angeles Kings beat the visiting Dallas Stars 3–2 on Tuesday night, Jan. 3.
Copley is 9–1–0 in 10 starts since he was called up from Ontario of the American Hockey League on Dec. 1.
Rasmus Kupari, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe scored goals and Kevin Fiala had two assists for the Kings, who have won three of four and seven of nine (7–1–1).
Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson scored, Roope Hintz had two assists and Jake Oettinger made 32 saves for the Stars, who had won a season-high four in a row entering the contest.
The Kings were on a power play when Kempe scored off a backhand feed from Fiala to give Los Angeles a 3–2 lead at 9:25 of the third period. It was Kempe’s 15th goal of the season.
Los Angeles opened the scoring at 7:58 of the first period. Kupari received a pass from Fiala as he entered the offensive zone with speed and scored with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle.
The offenses erupted in the second period with the teams combining for three goals in a 2:38 span.
Heiskanen scored on a slap shot through traffic from just inside the blue line to tie the game 1–1 at 6:31 and extend his point streak to four games (one goal, four assists).
The Kings moved back ahead 2–1 at 8:13 when defenseman Drew Doughty brought the puck into the high slot and took a wrist shot that was deflected into the net by Kopitar for his first goal in 10 games.
Dallas tied it at 9:09 of the period. Joe Pavelski slid a pass by two Los Angeles defenders and onto the blade of Robertson, who was wide open in the slot to score his 26th goal of the season and extend his point streak to eight games (three goals, nine assists).
The Stars were 8–for–17 on the power play during their winning streak, and Los Angeles had allowed at least one power-play goal in each of its previous 10 games, but the Kings killed all three Dallas penalties.
