Jiri Hudler lifts Stars past Kings

LOS ANGELES -- Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff had a short wish list: He wanted one of his players to score his first goal of the season, and two others to end a scoring drought.
Done and done.
Jiri Hudler scored his first goal with the Stars to help them to a 6-4 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Monday.

WATCH: All Stars vs. Kings highlights
Hudler, who was limited to 16 games in the first half of the season because of a virus after signing with Dallas as a free agent Aug. 24, scored the game-winning goal at 7:44 of the third period on a scramble after Kings goaltender Peter Budaj wandered from his net.
Patrick Sharp had a goal and two assists, and Brett Ritchie, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Oleksiak and Devin Shore also scored for the Stars (17-16-8), who ended a three-game losing streak (0-2-1).

For Ritchie, it was his first goal in 13 games. For Sharp, it was his second of the season, first since Nov. 23. He has been limited to 15 games this season, largely because of concussion-like symptoms, and had not scored in his previous seven.
"I said before the game, 'I need three guys to score,'" Ruff said. "I said I wanted Ritchie to score, I wanted Sharp to score, and I wanted Hudler to score. The coaches said, 'Why didn't you put [Cody] Eakin in there too?'"
Dallas never trailed in a game that had six goals in the third period, when each starting goalie was pulled. Antti Niemi got the win despite making one save after replacing Kari Lehtonen in the Dallas net at 5:18 of the third period.
Nicholas Shore, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty scored for the Kings (20-17-4). Budaj allowed five goals on 22 shots.
"You don't expect to score six against a team like Los Angeles," Sharp said. "I think the biggest goal was the first one. I thought the Kings came out and were really taking it to us.
"We held the fort as best we could, and Ritchie scoring that first one settled us down a little bit. I thought we had a good second period and a wild finish."

The Kings rallied to tie the game 4-4 in the third period after trailing by two goals three times.
Brown scored at 2:16 on the power play to cut the Stars lead to 3-2, but Devin Shore scored 43 seconds later to make it 4-2.
Kopitar made it 4-3 with his fourth goal at 4:20, ending a 12-game goal drought, and Doughty scored 58 seconds later to tie it 4-4 and chase Lehtonen, who made 17 saves.
Hudler put Dallas ahead to stay when he scored at 7:44 for a 5-4 lead. Jeff Zatkoff replaced Budaj 3:08 later.
"I was going to pull him after the [Hudler] goal," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "But out of respect for Jeff, I wanted him to warm up, so I told him, 'Next whistle.'"

Goal of the game

Ritchie broke his goal-scoring slump moments after a big hit on defenseman Alec Martinez in the left corner of the Los Angeles zone. Kings center Jeff Carter turned over the puck to the right of the net, and Lauri Korpikoski passed across the goal mouth to Ritchie for a one-timer past Budaj.

Save of the game

Budaj made a glove save on Sharp one minute into the second period after Sharp stole the puck from Kopitar and shot from the left hash marks.

Highlight of the game

Doughty tied it with a slap shot from above the right faceoff circle off a deft drop pass from Kopitar.

Unsung performance of the game

The Kings had a sustained sequence of pressure around the six-minute mark of the second period, but Stars defenseman Esa Lindell and forwards Korpikoski and Adam Cracknell put on a shot-blocking clinic in front of Lehtonen.

They said it

"[Kari Lehtonen] has had some tough times. It just got to the point where I had to pull the trigger, and I thought Antti [Niemi] gave us a couple of saves. It's hard. We're battling for our lives. I know he's battling too." -- Stars coach Lindy Ruff
"We have to put together a string of wins here. We need to take care of business at home. We weren't nearly as consistent as we needed to be." -- Kings center Anze Kopitar

Need to know

Kopitar passed Wayne Gretzky for sixth in Kings history with his 247th goal. … Stars forward Radek Faksa had three assists for his first three-point game in the NHL. … Dallas played its third straight game without forward Jamie Benn (foot), who might return to the lineup against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.

What's next

Stars: At the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, FS-SW, NHL.TV)
Kings: Host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; SN, SN360, FS-W, FS-MW, NHL.TV)