• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Stars win sixth straight vs. Kings; Boucher injured

Jan 16, 2007 - 1:56 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Not even two more injuries to an already depleted squad could prevent the Dallas Stars from continuing their dominance of the Los Angeles Kings.

Marty Turco stopped 20 shots and the Stars scored on their first two power-play chances en route to a 3-1 victory, their sixth straight win against the Kings.

Stu Barnes tallied with the man advantage in the first period and Niklas Hagman picked up his first game-winner of the season in the next session with his career high-tying 10th goal on the season for Dallas, which has outscored Los Angeles, 12-1, in the first two periods this season.

"We do (matchup well), but we knew it was a big game for us, Dallas center Mike Ribeiro said. "We came out pretty strong in the third, played pretty well as a team. Special teams did the job on both sides and that makes a difference."

"Their power play made a big impact on this game," Kings defenseman Oleg Tverdosky said. "We gave up some chances in the third, then they scored the third goal, which was hard to come back from."

With offensive catalyst Mike Modano already on injured reserve with a hip and groin injury, the Stars on Sunday placed right wing Matthew Barnaby (concussion), defenseman Sergei Zubov (elbow) and goaltender Mike Smith (concussion) on IR.

"It's kind of weird and most of (the injuries), it's to key players, too," Ribeiro said. "Hopefully, the guys that are here, we still battle every game. Hopefully, they'll be back soon."

Adding to the Stars' miseries, center Jeff Halpern was a game-time scratch with a lower body injury and defenseman Philippe Boucher - the club's leading scorer- left in the first period with an undisclosed injury and did not return.

"Those are valuable points right there," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "I thought our whole team stepped up. Our guys worked hard and I thought they brought that work ethic on the ice today. There was a good amount of desperation and work, good execution. A quality win.

"The only way our team is going to be successful right now, with the amount of people we have out, is if we have an unbelievable, determined effort throughout the group. Our execution, special teams, faceoffs, things like that, is on the mark. Strong goaltending and you probably need some bounces in there."

Turco yielded just a second-period goal to Michael Cammalleri, his third in three games, to improve to 22-15-1 this season and snap the Stars' three-game losing streak.

"The best part of today was how we played the game," Turco said. "We did exactly what we needed to do and got a contribution from everybody, as well as the special teams making a difference. We have a good grasp of how we needed to play and hopefully, this can continue for us."

"We lost three in a row and although that's not the end of the world, it makes it harder on us each day," Hagman said. "We have had a lot of lineup changes lately and I thought the guys played very well tonight and it's a good team win for us."

Rookie Barry Brust, getting another start because top goaltenders Mathieu Garon and Dan Clouthier are on injured reserve, had 22 saves for Los Angeles, which has lost four straight games.

Barnes' backhander over Brust's glove with 3:59 to play in the first period opened the scoring. His tally was set up by a nice no-look pass from Eric Lindros from the right slot as Barnes emerged from behind the net on the same side.

The Stars doubled their advantage eight minutes into the second period, when Hagman scored for the third straight game with his first power-play goal of the season. He took a feed from the right point from Jussi Jokinen at the right side of the crease and sent a wrister through Brust's armpit and off the left goalpost.

"We need to play better, I guess," Kings defenseman Aaron Miller said. "There's no good answer. If there is, then we obviously don't know it.

"Our special teams gave up the goals. I thought the first two periods we played them very well. We didn't give them much. Obviously in the third, they forced us into taking penalties and we played the whole third period in our end."

Los Angeles halved the deficit 1:43 later when Dustin Brown layed out a cross-ice feed from left to right to Cammalleri, who chipped it under Turco's glove.