Stars Finally Win

Kings roster

"I'm not usually in front of the opponent's net, I'm usually in front of our own net," Matvichuk said. "I was just hoping to hit the net, because I knew if I didn't, the play was going the other way."

Marcel Cousineau, who was making his first start of the season in the Kings' net, made the initial save, but the puck bounced off King defenseman Rob Blake to Matvichuk's stick.

"It was nothing short of a lucky bounce," said Cousineau. "We played real well tonight and it was disappointing not to win. It's unfortunate we did not get two points in this building, given how well we played them for 65 minutes."

The victory was the 1,000th in franchise history, 758 over 26 seasons in Minnesota and 242 over seven seasons in Dallas.

Mike Keane and Jamie Langenbrunner also scored for the Stars, who extended their unbeaten string against the Kings to 19 games (13-0-6). The Kings haven't beaten the Stars since April 6, 1995.

"It's just one of those things you can't explain. Sometimes it comes down to a lucky bounce and a lot of times it comes down to excellent play," Langenbrunner said. "It's just a funny thing when we play them, but there's no doubt it was good to get the extra point from a Kings' team that has been playing very well this year."

Len Barrie and Jason Blake scored for the Kings, who suddenly are wrestling with a lot of injuries. Top scorers Luc Robitaille and Jozef Stumpel are still out as well as top two goalies Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr.

"I thought it was a real good hockey game played by both teams. Dallas really needed to win, and you could tell they were pushing for it," Los Angeles coach Andy Murray said. "When you play a conference opponent you don't want to reward them with the extra point in overtime. But they earned their goal."