winless

Chris Kreider and Beckett Sennecke scored goals, Lukas Dostal survived a barrage of shots in the final minutes, and the Ducks beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Tuesday night to end a nine-game skid.

Jacob Trouba also scored for the Ducks, and Dostal stopped 24 shots — many of them from point-blank range after Dallas pulled the goalie twice in the final minutes. The Ducks were 0-8-1 since a 4-1 win against Columbus on Dec. 20.

Roope Hintz scored for Dallas and Casey DeSmith had 22 saves. The Stars lost for the fourth time in six games (2-2-2).

Hintz’s snap shot from the slot with a man advantage pulled the Stars to 2-1 with 2:12 left in the third, but Trouba sealed the Ducks’ win with an empty-netter the length of the ice with 20.5 seconds remaining.

The Ducks had given up five goals or more in each of their last five games, and they played one of the NHL’s best teams without their three top point scorers in Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Cutter Gauthier, who sat out because of injury or illness.

But they rediscovered some of their early-season mojo, out-skating, out-hitting and out-hustling the Stars for much of the game and taking advantage of a delayed penalty call on Kyle Capobianco to score their first goal in the second period.

Dostal skated to the bench, giving the Ducks a man advantage. Mikael Granlund took a blue-line pass from Radko Gudas at the bottom of the right circle and found a wide-open Kreider, who beat DeSmith stick-side with a snap shot from the high slot for a 1-0 lead 3:36 into the period.

The Ducks appeared to push the lead to 2-0 when Alex Killorn took a spectacular backhand pass from Ryan Poehling and scored a shorthanded goal with 39.8 seconds left in the second, but Poehling crashed into DeSmith and into the net, and the goal was waved off because of interference.

With 7:58 left in the third, Sennecke gathered the rebound of Granlund’s shot that caromed off the end board and toward the left post. Sennecke shielded himself from a defender and backhanded an unassisted goal past DeSmith for a 2-0 lead.

Dragons: O’Brien; J Rosser, Inisi, Owen, Dyer; De Beer, Hope; Martinez, Burrows, Hunt, Douglas, Carter (capt), Woodman, Beddall, Keddie.

Replacements: G Roberts, Morris, Dlamini, Lewis-Hughes, Young, R Williams, Westwood, Anderson.

Connacht: Gilbert; Mullins, Forde, Aki, Bolton; Ioane, Blade; Duggan, Heffernan, Illo, D Murray, N Murray, Prendergast (capt), O’Brien, Boyle.

Replacements: Tierney-Martin, Buckley, Bealham, J Murphy, Jansen, B Murphy, Carty, Gavin.

Yellow card: Boyle 40,

Referee: Ru Campbell (Scotland)

Assistants: Rob McDowell, Jonny Mackenzie (Wales)

TMO: Mike Adamson (Scotland)

Attendance: 4,188

TAMPA, Fla. — Adrian Kempe scored twice in the second period, and the Kings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night.

Anton Forsberg stopped 31 shots to help the Kings snap a four-game skid (0-2-2) and get just their third win in nine games (3-4-2).

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 18 saves. Tampa Bay has lost three straight (0-2-1) and seven of its last nine (2-6-1).

The Lightning outshot the Kings 13-3 in the third period, but couldn’t get the tying goal past Forsberg.

Bjorkstrand gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with 7:06 remaining in the first period with a power-play goal, knocking in the rebound through Forsberg’s pads after the goalie stopped his initial attempt.

Kempe then scored twice 10½ minutes apart in the second to put the Kings ahead. First, he beat Vasilevskiy from between the circles at 5:21 to tie it. Then, he put a backhander past the goalie from the right side on a breakaway with 4:02 remaining in the period with his team-leading 13th for a 2-1 lead with 4:02 left in the period.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Sam Bennett scored 10 seconds into the third period, Brad Marchand had two assists and the Florida Panthers beat the Kings 3-2 on Wednesday night to sweep the two-game season series.

Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for Florida, which has won six of its last seven games. Daniil Tarasov made 27 saves for the Panthers, including a breakaway stop against the Kings’ Trevor Moore with just under five minutes left to preserve a one-goal lead.

Joel Armia and Kevin Fiala had the goals for the Kings, who fell to 0-2-2 in their last four contests. The four-game winless streak matches a season-long slide for the Kings, who were 0-2-2 from Oct. 11 through Oct. 18 as well.

Anton Forsberg stopped 25 shots for the Kings. Armia had the only goal in the first period, and Fiala made it 3-2 when a clearing attempt by Florida deflected off his shin and went past Tarasov with 15:12 left.

The Kings had a chance in the final minutes to tie the game, after Florida’s Anton Lundell was called for high-sticking with 3:05 left. The Kings managed only one shot on the ensuing power play — about half of which was with a two-man advantage after Forsberg was pulled for an extra attacker — and the Panthers held on from there.

Bennett’s goal that gave Florida a 3-1 lead tied for the third-fastest to start any period this season.

Kirill Marchenko scored for Columbus seven seconds into a second period against Minnesota on Oct. 11; Jackson LaCombe scored for the Ducks nine seconds into a second period against Vancouver on Nov. 26; and Connor McDavid scored for Edmonton 10 seconds into a third period against Buffalo on Dec. 9.

Up next

Kings: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday night. Panthers: Host Carolina on Friday night.