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Stars welcome rival Kings to Big D

Oct 27, 2011 - 3:08 PM (Sports Network) - The Dallas Stars look to remain perfect at home when they entertain the Los Angeles Kings tonight in a battle of the top two teams in the Pacific Division at AmericanAirlines Center.

Dallas is 4-0-0 in Big D and 7-2-0 overall this season. It will also host New Jersey and Colorado on the upcoming homestand and recently defeated Phoenix by a 3-2 score in a shootout on Tuesday in the finale of a four-game road trip. Adam Burish scored the tying goal with 61 seconds remaining in regulation and Trevor Daley sealed it with a goal in the eighth round of the shootout.

Sheldon Souray lit the lamp on the power play and Kari Lehtonen set aside 33 of the 35 shots that went his way. Souray now has 98 goals in his career.

"We have to get used to playing tight games, it's a tight league, there's a lot of good teams," Souray said on the team's site. "We're going to be down by one a lot of times, we're going to be up by one a lot and we have to learn how to be comfortable and play the right way in those games. Tonight we did, and we got amazing goaltending again from Kari, and we stuck with it. It took until the last minute again, but they're valuable points tonight."

Jamie Benn assisted on Souray's goal and has six points (1g, 5a) in his last five games for Dallas, which bounced back from a 1-0 loss at Los Angeles. The last time Dallas won its first four home games was in 1998-99, when it recorded five victories in a row.

Lehtonen is 7-0-0 to start the season for the first time in his career and has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his seven outings. Penguins netminder Marc-Andre Fleury was the last goaltender to prevail in his first eight games back in 2008-09.

The Kings, meanwhile, will try to get back on track after having their four- game winning streak stopped with Tuesday's 3-0 loss versus New Jersey.

Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, who had recorded a franchise-record three straight shutouts, was given the night off. Jonathan Bernier made his second start of the season and turned aside 20-of-23 shots for the Kings, who will open a three-game road trip tonight against the Stars, Coyotes and Avalanche.

"Bernier was fine," Kings head coach Terry Murray said. "Bernier I thought made some big stops. We gave up some quality chances in the first period. He played well. This was not about the goaltending. This is all about managing the puck and turnovers and giveaways that ended up being very easy goals against."

Quick shut out the Stars, 1-0, in his most recent game on Saturday, while Bernier lost for the second time in as many tries this season. The last goaltender to register four straight shutouts was Brian Boucher of Phoenix with five back in the 2003-04 campaign. Quick holds a franchise record for consecutive scoreless streak at 188:10.

Los Angeles center Anze Kopitar has 10 points (4g, 6a) in the first eight games this season for the Kings, who have points in five of their last six contests (4-1-1). Murray is six wins behind Glen Sather for 17th overall in NHL history and seven victories shy of 1,400 in the regular season.

The Stars are shooting for their 100th all-time win against the Kings and have lost three straight and 10 of the past 13 meetings between the teams. Dallas and LA have played five consecutive one-goal games against each other and Stars forward Brenden Morrow owns 19 career goals against the Kings, the second-most in his career against one team behind 21 goals versus Phoenix.

Los Angeles has won six of seven trips to Big D.