Kings finish trip in style with 5-2 victory over Dallas

The Kings started and finished a five-game trip without standout defenseman Drew Doughty, who will take another week to recover from a concussion.

But between the bad beginning — losing Doughty the night before they lost at Phoenix — and the good end — a solid 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday at a near-empty American Airlines Center — the Kings learned something about themselves.

“On an eight-day road trip to come back after a loss to Chicago and play the way we did says a lot about the character in the locker room here and how committed we are to the team,” said goaltender Jonathan Quick, who made several spectacular saves among the 30 he recorded.

The Kings felt they didn’t get the bounces they deserved in a 3-1 loss Wednesday at Chicago and instead of moping became aggressive Thursday against a weak Dallas defense. If they were lucky it was because they were doing good things like driving to the net and throwing pucks at Kari Lehtonen and pouncing on rebounds.

After Dustin Brown scored on a five-on-three power play early in the first period and Brad Richards later did the same for Dallas, the Kings (7-3-0) sagged in the second period. But the energy of Wayne Simmonds and opportunism of Alexei Ponikarovsky created two goals within nine seconds and a lead they didn’t relinquish.

“We definitely didn’t play our game to start and we got a couple of bounces to kind of get our momentum going,” defenseman Willie Mitchell said, and he should know. He benefitted when his intended pass to Michal Handzus hit the skate of Dallas defenseman Philip Larsen and caromed into the net, a short-handed goal that gave the Kings a 4-1 lead at 4:40 of the third period.

“Maybe it was just a little bit of karma for not getting the bounces the night before,” Mitchell said after scoring his second career short-handed goal nearly eight years after his first. “These games are really, really important. The back-to-backs … if you’re trying to win the division, good teams find a way to win them and we did. So it’s a good steppingstone for the team.”

The only blemish Thursday was an injury Simmonds sustained late in the second period on a hit by Dallas defenseman Matt Niskanen during a four-on-four situation. Simmonds wouldn’t comment and Coach Terry Murray called it — you guessed it — a lower-body injury. Simmonds played one shift in the third period before calling it quits.

He had made a superb play to help put the Kings ahead, 2-1, driving to the net and taking a backhander that was rebounded by Ponikarovsky at 13:05. Nine seconds and one video review later, Simmonds was credited with his third goal of the season. Taking a pass from Jack Johnson — the last of Johnson’s three assists — Simmonds crashed the net and wristed the puck past Lehtonen before the net came off its moorings.

After Mitchell’s goal, which prompted Dallas Coach Marc Crawford to pull Lehtonen and substitute Andrew Raycroft, former King Brandon Segal trimmed the Kings’ lead to 4-2 at 10:10 of the third period. But Justin Williams scored into an empty net with 1:41 left, a double insult to an announced crowd of 11,306 that had gotten unhappy updates on the Texas Rangers’ World Series loss to the San Francisco Giants.

Although it wasn’t a good night for Texas sports fans, the Kings had many reasons to smile during their charter flight home. Their power play was five for 19 on the trip after scoring only once in 20 chances in their first five games and their penalty killers neutralized 20 of 23 disadvantages. Johnson, counted on to step up during Doughty’s absence, had six assists.

“It was hard. There’s a lot of late nights and travel,” Murray said, “and to finish it off with a big win against a division opponent like this makes it outstanding.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

twitter.com/helenenothelen