Kings fiercely shake Stars’ hold on them

There were those early subtle signs -- the ones that never even come close to making the final score sheet -- that this wouldn’t be a typical one-sided Kings-Dallas Stars game.

Puck possession, for one. Kings center Derek Armstrong simply refused to give way during one tenacious stretch in the first period along the boards and behind the net, battling in a way seldom displayed by the Kings the last nine times these teams have met, all resulting in Dallas victories.

Then there was Dustin Brown’s message-sending hit on Matt Niskanen just 5:35 into the game.

Small steps led to one great leap forward as the Kings went on to defeat the Stars for the first time in 10 games, winning, 2-1, on Thursday night before an announced crowd of 14,559 at Staples Center on goals by Brian Willsie and Alexander Frolov’s game-winner on a centering pass from Armstrong at 1:40 of the third period.

Frolov, who went goal-less in his first eight games, has scored in three consecutive games. On top of that, there was another strong performance by Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera, who faced 30 shots.

He spoke about banishing the ghosts of Dallas past.

“It’s nice to have . . . especially losing that many games to one team is not the ideal situation,” said LaBarbera, who has allowed one goal in his last two starts.

“We stuck together as a team and you can really see it in everyone’s faces, that we’re happy to be here and having fun. Everybody is kind of getting confidence and it’s exciting.

“We were really good down low in their end. We moved the puck well, especially in the second period. We were good low and really good around the net in front of me.”

The last time the Kings (5-6) beat Dallas came on April 1, 2006, a 1-0 victory. Despite giving up a late first-period goal by Jere Lehtinen, the Kings then came out and perhaps played their most complete 40 minutes this season.

Another mini-milestone: It was the third straight victory by the Kings. While that’s not exactly stop-the-presses news, then again, the Kings failed to do just that last season. They’ve won four of their last five games, and LaBarbera has been in goal for three of those four victories, starting last Friday in Vancouver.

The second period featured a truly terrific goal.

Willsie, scoring his first of the season, moved from left to right and went airborne, and had the possession while falling to sweep the puck in between the post and Dallas goalie Marty Turco.

“That was sort of our game plan to crash the net,” Willsie said. “Just went to the net on the rebound and just banged it home.”

Still, there were the usual tense late moments.

The Kings’ penalty-killing unit, flawless against the Stars, were forced to kill off back-to-back minors when Jack Johnson went off for slashing at 14:06 and Rob Blake followed with a charging penalty at 16:03.

Dallas was 0 for 4 with the man advantage, and had a five-on-three for four seconds following the Blake penalty late in the third.

“We just stayed together as a team,” LaBarbera said. “You never want to take penalties late like that. The penalty-killers did a great job. We didn’t let them get set up too much and [Patrick O’Sullivan] did a great job with [Sergei] Zubov there for about 15 seconds.

“When you’ve got guys who can do that, it picks the rest of us up. It makes you want to play hard.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com