Kings hand it over to Stars

DALLAS -- Welcome to giveaway night at American Airlines Center in the disguise of an unannounced promotion.

Not one, not two, but three giveaways led to three Stars goals en route to the Kings’ third consecutive loss. And if that wasn’t enough ammunition for Dallas, there was a sublime performance by goalie Marty Turco, who made 32 saves in defeating the Kings, 5-1, Wednesday night.

Little has gone right for the Kings against the Stars -- 0-6-2 last season -- and Dallas often has been a house of horrors, whether at its former home arena or this one.

Giveaways in the neutral zone. Miscues in their end. Missed assignments in front of the net and a woeful three shots on goal in the second period.

Take your pick of the equal-opportunity gifts.

“The common thread is they won and we didn’t,” Coach Marc Crawford said. “That’s the common thread here the last little while and we’ve got to change that. You change it by believing in what you do and we don’t need any magic formula. We just have to execute a little better.”

There were glimmers of hope, moments of sustained offense from the Kings before those were stomped out by momentum switches. The first came on the Stars’ short-handed effort, Niklas Hagman’s unassisted breakaway at 7 minutes 25 seconds of the first period, making it 1-0.

“He went to his backhand early,” said goalie Jason LaBarbera, who was making his second start this season. “I was trying to wait for him. I thought he was going to go high glove and he just kind of swept it five-hole and threw me off.

“I tried to be as patient as I could. He made a good play. I misread it.”

Another key sequence came in about a five-minute span in the second period. With Dallas leading, 2-0, Turco stopped Alexander Frolov’s short-handed breakaway, and about five minutes later there was a breakdown between defensemen Brad Stuart and Jack Johnson, leading to a Johnson giveaway on the right wing in his end. The Stars’ third goal followed, scored by Antti Miettinen from the middle of the circle.

“We just had a miscommunication,” Johnson said. “He thought I was going to be skating more and tried to lead me into it just a little too far. It ended up going right to them and we gave them a good chance and they took advantage of it.

“It seemed like every breakaway, every chance they scored.”

That cushion was more than enough for Turco.

“The biggest sticking point was Marty Turco,” Crawford said. “He was terrific tonight. Should have been the first star of the game and he was the first star of the game. Not taking anything from the fact we made too many mistakes.”

Turco was a little more than 10 minutes from getting his 31st shutout before Kings forward Kyle Calder intervened. Calder’s goal, coming at 9:03 of the third period, was his 100th in the NHL and first as a King. The assists were from Raitis Ivanans and Johnson, who had his first point in the NHL.

Crawford, as promised, tinkered a bit with the lineup, making two adjustments up front. In were Scott Thornton and John Zeiler, and out were Brady Murray and Brian Willsie.

One unexpected change came on defense. Kevin Dallman replaced Tom Preissing, who started feeling ill in the afternoon. “He’s got a little bit of flu-like dizziness, so we held him out,” Crawford said.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com