KINGS STUN THE STARS NHL: KOPITAR SCORES WINNER, AS L.A. RALLIES FROM FOUR-GOAL DEFICIT. KINGS 6, DALLAS 5 (OT).

Byline: Matthew Kredell

Staff Writer

Fans were leaving in droves, starting goaltender Jason LaBarbera was on the bench and the Kings were just trying to avoid their first shutout of the season.

Then something special happened at Staples Center on Saturday.

The Kings mounted a ferocious rally with five goals in 5 minutes and 7 seconds late in the third period and beat Dallas 6-5 in overtime.

Anze Kopitar scored the winner 2:34 into overtime, taking the puck off the boards and racing over the middle to beat Dallas goalie Marty Turco on a backhand.

"It was just an amazing, amazing game," said the 22-year-old Kopitar. "It followed a script that's never been done before. This could be the craziest game of my career when it's all said and done."

The Stars, with one of the better goalies in the league, had won 34 consecutive games with a lead of more than one goal.

Kings coach Marc Crawford seemed to be acknowledging defeat when he put backup Jean-Sebastien Aubin in the game for LaBarbera entering the third period.

The comeback started innocently. Dustin Brown got an easy goal with a slap shot off a pass from Lubomir Visnovsky on the power play that got behind Turco with 7:14 to go.

A little more than a minute later, Scott Thornton fired a slap shot past Turco.

"That's when we knew we had a chance," Kopitar said. "But we couldn't have expected the scenario that happened."

What seemed like a too-little, too-late show of life got interesting when Derek Armstrong fired the puck inside and had it deflect off the skate of Alexander Frolov and in with 4:25 left.

It took just 26 seconds more for the Kings to tie the score on a goal by Kopitar. Brown made a quick tip pass after getting a feed from Visnovsky to set up Kopitar.

The red light was going off faster than the goals could be announced.

Ladislav Nagy deflected a slap shot from the blue line by Brad Stuart past Turco to cap the rally with 2:07 remaining in regulation.

What was left of a sold-out crowd of 18,118 erupted when the official reviewing the goal for high sticking raised his arm in approval.

Those same fans had booed the team at the end of two periods with the Kings trailing 4-0 and seeming lethargic coming off a season-long six-day layoff.

The Kings' previous record for fastest five goals was in 5:37 at Hartford on Nov. 2, 1985.

After all that, Dallas (7-8-2) tied the score with 1:05 left on a power-play goal from Michael Modano after Michal Handzus was called for boarding.

But the Kings didn't have a letdown, with Kopitar scoring his second goal of the game.

The victory gives the Kings a 2-1 record in the early stages of a key 11-game stretch against Pacific Division opponents.

"This is a character-building win for our club," Crawford said.

"It's something we can look to down the road as the turning point of our season."

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Photo:

Dallas center Mike Ribeiro, right, takes a shot past Kings defenseman Rob Blake for a goal Saturday.

Mark Avery/Associated Press