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Handzus' hat trick powers Kings to thrilling win

Mar 6, 2009 - 7:08 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Michal Handzus completed his hat trick with the game-winning goal 91 seconds into overtime as the Los Angeles Kings rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Handzus, who scored twice on the power play earlier in the contest, picked up the puck and skated behind the net 91 seconds into the extra session, shoving it past Marty Turco's right foot to lift the Kings to victory.

Anze Kopitar tied the score with 13 seconds remaining in the third when his shot from the right corner deflected off a Stars' defenseman and past Turco.

"To be honest, I didn't know how much time was left on the clock," Kopitar said. "All I was thinking about was turning and throwing it right in front of the net and hopefully there would be a scrum. Luckily it went off the guy and threw his legs."

"I got caught looking up ice to see where their other guys were," Turco said. "That's part of the disappointment, my job is to have that puck and find it no matter what happens. It was a bad bounce, but you've got to find those and be ready for them."

Alexander Frolov also tallied for the Kings, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

"For us it's two points, so it's the most important thing," Handzus said. "We are scrambling and we needed two points. It wasn't the best game we ever played, but we won and that's what's most important right now."

Mike Ribeiro, Steve Ott and Loui Eriksson each had a goal and an assist and rookie James Neal also found the back of the net for the Stars, who appeared to be in the driver's seat after scoring four goals in the second period.

"With our lineup right now we're relying on a lot of young guys, but were also relying on veteran players to make sure that they can stabilize our group," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "When you have (Mark) Parrish, (defenseman Stephane) Robidas and Turco taking penalty after penalty in the last five minutes, you're shooting yourself in the foot and that's exactly what we did.

"They got some bounces at the end, but Marty was so tired at the end that he couldn't even crouch down, and we brought it all upon ourselves. It was a very disappointing loss and that's the way it is."

After a scoreless first session, Eriksson opened the scoring 5:49 into the middle period.

Mike Modano received a pass on the rush into the offensive zone and passed across the slot to Eriksson, who dangled around a sprawling Erik Ersberg and slid the puck into the net for his 29th tally of the season.

The Stars tripled their lead over an 85 second span midway through the second. Ribeiro picked up a rebound in the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot into the vacant net for his 16th goal of the campaign with 9:22 left in the period before Neal ripped a wrister by Ersberg from the bottom of the left circle to push the bulge to 3-0.

The Kings narrowed the deficit to one goal with a pair of tallies in 33 seconds later in the session.

Handzus tipped a slapper from Kyle Quincey past Turco on a power play with 4:19 remaining and Frolov quickly followed by depositing a rebound in the back of the net.

The Stars regained a two-goal advantage in the waning seconds of the second as Ott corralled a loose puck with 14 seconds left and pushed it past Ersberg, who was pulled in favor of rookie Jonathan Quick to start the third period.