Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
Kings battle back in first period
Dallas gets a rare two-man advantage early, when both Johnson and Guilano get concurrent penalties, giving the Stars a two-man advantage for two minutes. LaBarbera makes some tremedous saves, but Halpern puts one in with three seconds left to put the Stars up by one.
Then, 16 seconds later, Dallas strikes again. Eriksson puts in a rebound from behind LaBarbera to make it 2-0. And here we go again.
O'Sullivan gets a penalty for tripping Halpern, but the Kings kill the penalty. Then as O'Sullivan leaves the box, the puck is fed to him and he skates in. He puts the puck on net, and the rebound finds it's way to Frolov, who scores to put L.A. on the board.
LaBarbera is showing more comfort handling the puck behind the net. I guess Ranford is giving Labs some good guidance when it comes to puck-handling.
Then, less than a minute later, Armstrong scores to tie the game. As I'm listening to Jimmy Fox on FSN West, he notes that in the last 17 shots faced by Turco, he has let in 8 goals. I guess that's good for Los Angeles. Another good sign: the home team has won each game in this series. Dallas is 2-0 at home, while L.A. is 3-0 at Staples.
The shots were even, (12 a piece) but the hits were not (17-9 in favor of the Kings). It was great to see the Kings come back after being down by two goals. Not something you can count on every night. But they have made it a game again.
First period: Kings 2, Stars 2
