Star Power Useless in L.A.

After spending 17 days and playing their last eight games on the road, the Kings returned and featured the Felix and Ziggy show Saturday night at Staples Center.

Felix Potvin recorded 29 saves for his second shutout of the season and Ziggy Palffy scored twice in the Kings’ 2-0 victory over the Dallas Stars in front of a sellout crowd of 18,292.

“You have to stay focused and the way [Dallas goaltender] Marty Turco was playing, you knew that it was going to be a low-scoring night,” said Potvin, who has 27 shutouts in his career. “It’s a lot easier when it’s a close game like this.”

Under former King assistant Dave Tippett, the Stars began Saturday’s game with the NHL’s best record at 13-4-4-1 and were coming off a 4-0 victory over the Mighty Ducks at the Arrowhead Pond the night before.

Turco, who recorded his third shutout of the season against the Ducks, was sharp early against the Kings, who started strong in their first game at Staples Center since Nov. 4.

Palffy drew a hooking penalty on defenseman Richard Matvichuk 29 seconds into the game. On the ensuing power play, the Kings pressured Turco but failed to score despite taking three shots.

Although the Stars ended up being outshot in the first period, 11-6, they also had their own share of solid scoring chances against Potvin, who made highlight stops on shots by Manny Malhotra, Scott Young and Mike Modano over the final half of the period.

Potvin (8-6-3) had to be on top of his game on a Dallas power play early in the second period.

With the Kings’ Bryan Smolinski in the penalty box for high-sticking, the Stars missed a golden opportunity to score when Dallas forward Brenden Morrow was unable to get to a loose rebound of a shot by Young from the point. Potvin, who made the initial save on Young, beat Morrow to the puck to keep the game scoreless.

In the third period, Potvin was again put on the spot and again was up to the challenge. With the Stars on their fourth power play, Potvin stuffed a bang-bang scoring chance by Modano, and followed that with successive diving saves on shots by Young.

The Kings finally rewarded Potvin for his stellar play late in the third period when Palffy scored the game-winning goal with 5:13 to play.

The Kings’ Erik Rasmussen, who played one of his best games of the season, got the play started when he dug the puck out from deep in the right corner. Rasmussen then fought off defenseman Sergei Zubov and skated behind the Stars’ net before getting the puck to Mathieu Schneider at the left circle.

Schneider’s shot was blocked by Turco, but he left a perfect rebound for Palffy, who scored from outside the right side of the crease to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.

The Kings finally put the Stars away when Palffy scored his fifth goal this season on an empty-netter with 14.7 seconds remaining. It was the type of effort King Coach Andy Murray has been looking for from Palffy and one reason why he spoke to his top goal scorer Saturday morning.

“Ziggy and I just had a little talk before the game,” Murray said. “He knows what he has to do. It was more me asking what I could do to help him as a coach as my laying down the hammer. He said, ‘I’ve gotta do some things,’ and that’s what I wanted to hear.... He thought he needed to be more creative and he was.”