Kings 5, Stars 2
DALLAS -- Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist and Jhonas Enroth stopped 24 of 26 shots for the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 win against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at American Airlines Center.
Kris Versteeg, Tyler Toffoli, Dustin Brown and Trevor Lewis also scored for the Kings (42-22-5), who have won nine of their last 12 games. Rob Scuderi also had a career-high tying two assists.
Los Angeles is now 9-1-1 in the second game of back-to-backs.
Alex Goligoski and Cody Eakin scored for Dallas (41-21-9), who allowed five or more goals in a game for the 14th time this season. The Stars are 1-12-1 in such contests and have lost two straight.
Niemi stopped 10 of 11 shots in relief of Lehtonen.
Los Angeles struck first when Kris Versteeg redirected a Scuderi slap shot for his 13th goal of the season 23 seconds into the game on the Kings' first shot. Versteeg got his stick on Scuderi's attempt from the left point, which then deflected off Stars defenseman Kris Russell before landing in the back of the net.
The Kings doubled their lead 5:25 into the first when Tyler Toffoli scored his 26th goal of the season off a Dallas turnover inside their zone. After Russell lost his balance near the Dallas blue line, Nick Shore gained possession.
Toffoli took the puck, passed it to Shore, who quickly passed it back and Toffoli scored on an easy tap-in at the near post to make it 2-0.
Dallas pulled one back at 8:47 of the first period when Alex Goligoski scored his first goal in 17 games off a deflection. Goligoski's wrist shot from the left circle deflected off the left skate of Dwight King for Goligoski's first goal since Feb. 9 at Minnesota.
Goligoski's goal came on the Stars' first shot of the game.
The Kings regained their two-goal edge late in the first period when Anze Kopitar scored his 22nd goal on a backhand 2:20 before the first intermission. After Goligoski couldn't shut down Milan Lucic near the Dallas blue line, Lucic laid the puck off to Kopitar and he was off to the races.
Kopitar maneuvered around Russell and finished with a backhand to make it 3-1. Scuderi assisted on that goal as well for the 100th of his career.
Dustin Brown scored his 10th goal of the season 1:07 into the second period, making it 4-1 while sending Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen to the bench in favor of Antti Niemi. It appeared Lehtonen had stopped Brown's wrist shot from the slot, but the puck got through him and crossed the line.
Lehtonen stopped seven of 11 shots prior to departing.
Dallas cut it to 4-2 when Cody Eakin scored a power-play goal off a rebound at 6:42 of the second. During a furious scrum in front of the visiting net, Eakin collected his own rebound to score his 10th goal of the season.
Trevor Lewis gave the Kings a 5-2 lead when he scored his seventh of the season with 5:12 remaining in the second after another Dallas turnover. Vincent Lecavalier intercepted a Goligoski near the Dallas blue line and fed Lewis who scored with a wrist shot from the slot that went in under Niemi's glove.
NOTES: Stars coach Lindy Ruff was coaching the 1,400th game of his career. ... Kings C Andy Andreoff and D Jamie McBain were scratched. ... Stars D Jordie Benn (lower body), D Jason Demers (shoulder), C Mattias Janmark (upper body), D John Klingberg (lower body), C Colton Sceviour and LW Patrick Sharp (lower body) were scratched. ... Kings C Vincent Lecavalier appeared in his 1,200th career game while Kings LW Kyle Clifford appeared in his 400th game.