Dallas Stars Earn 10th Win of Season with Victory over Blue Jackets

The Dallas Stars slid by the Columbus Blue Jackets in OT 5-4 Tuesday night for their tenth win this season.

From a statistical comparison, Dallas (10-8-2) beat Columbus (5-12-3) in face-offs 29-27 and out-shot the Blue Jackets 39-20. The game stayed back to back for the most part, with both goalies failing to block some goals that should have been stopped.

Feb 26, 2013; Columbus, OH, USA; Dallas Stars left wing Antoine Roussel (60) checks Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman John Moore (4) into the boards at Nationwide Arena. Dallas won the game 5-4 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

The beginning of the game was not nearly as action packed as the second and third periods, but once Derick Brassard was penalized for holding Jaromir Jagr, the Dallas Stars took advantage of the power play opportunity with multiple attempts to score. Jamie Benn won both beginning face-offs leading to 3 shots on goal. The first shot was from Loui Eriksson, then Jagr, and lastly an 82-foot slap shot from Jamie Benn, which Sergei Bobrovsky stopped.

Columbus then kept good possession of the puck until Trevor Daley’s takeaway in the defensive zone. Once the Stars took possession it was not long until shots were flying back at Bobrovsky once more.

Antoine Roussel began the shooting with a 32-foot backhand but was blocked, Jaime Oleksiak took a 56-foot slap shot that went wide of the net. After Oleksiak’s wide shot this prompted Brenden Morrow to score the first goal for the Stars with a simple 10-foot backhand shot. Cody Eakin and Alex Goligoski were the assists to Morrow’s first goal 15 minutes into the first quarter.

Once the second period began it was not long until the Blue Jackets answered back to the Stars goal with one of their own. Mark Letestu beat Benn in the face-off in the offensive zone then sending the puck over to Fedor Tyutin. Tyutin then quickly passed it off to Nikita Nikitin who slapped in a 51-footer past Richard Bachman, tying the score 1-1.

Feb 21, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars center Derek Roy (11) and Vancouver Canucks left wing Aaron Volpatti (15) chase the puck during the first period at the American Airlines Center. The Canucks defeated the Stars 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Blue Jackets goal would be short-lived though as Derek Roy brought in another goal for the Stars with a short wrist shot to score 2-1. After this, the game was back-to-back with just minutes, if even, separating the goals.

Columbus came back with fury retaliating to Dallas’ goal in less than a minute. After a shot attempt from Derek Dorsett and then Letestu, Dorsett netted one in with a 13-foot wrist shot tying the score once more 2-2.

Dallas followed this goal with one of their own thanks to Roussel with a 19-foot tip-in shot bringing the score to 3-2, where it would stay until the third period.

Within the first minute of the third both Brenden Dillon and Colton Gillies were penalized for 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Shortly after, Ryan Garbutt took a penalty for tripping Nikitin. The Blue Jackets then took some power play shots only for Bachman to save the shots and give the Stars some shorthanded opportunities against Columbus. Vernon Fiddler started out by winning the face-off followed by a take away and then a shot on goal.
After this there were a couple minutes of puck play until Cam Atkinson netted a 12-foot snap shot to bring the Blue Jackets to 3-3.

Feb 26, 2013; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (72) makes a save against Dallas Stars center Derek Roy (11) at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

After this Dallas took complete control over the puck remaining on the offensive side, shot attempt after shot attempt. Bobrovsky kept a good eye on the puck from going in until at 13:36 in the period Cody Eakin took a 50 foot snap shot that rolled right past Bobrovsky’s glove and into the goal, bringing the game 3-4.

This brought the Stars into a state of comfort, but little did they know Columbus was in it to win it and just like that, scored again.

R.J. Umberger took a 26-foot wrist shot to tie the game up 4-4 with barely two minutes to spare, therefore sending the game into OT.

Overtime consisted of the Stars going back at it again with Bobrovsky until 3:03 into OT Loui Eriksson took a short 10-foot wrist shot to end the game giving the Stars a 5-4 victory and ending their losing streak.

The Stars will take on the Edmonton Oilers (7-7-4) Thursday, February 28 at home.