Stars KO Jackets

February 16, 2009 by J. Justin Boggs

The Columbus Blue Jackets went into Monday’s tilt with the Dallas Stars in uncharted waters for the franchise; a chance to climb into a spot among the elite teams in the Western Conference. What they found was another middleweight fighting to become a heavyweight.

With fifth place in the Western Conference on the line, the Dallas Stars defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in a shootout 3-2 in front of 15,006 in Nationwide Arena. Columbus is now in a tie for sixth place with the Vancouver Canucks. Columbus’ four game winning streak ended with the shootout loss.

“We had a real chance to go for the throat, and we could have really stepped on it today,” Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We had them on their heels”

Both goalies had good solid efforts. Stars goalie Marty Turco stopped 41 of 43 and did not allow any goals in the shootout. Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason had saved 20 of 22.

“He played very well,” Blue Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore said of Turco. “He is a good goaltender. He has been around a while, he had a tough start (to the season) but he is coming around which is no big surprise. “

James Neal netted the only shootout goal in the second round of the tiebreaker as his shot beat the glove of Mason.

Dallas opened the scoring just 33 seconds in when Stars forward Brad Richards took a shot off his own rebound which beat the stick of Mason.

“That is not the way you want to start the game,” Mason said. “Kind of puts us back against the eight ball obviously and it was a disappointing start.”

Dallas dictated much of the play early on. The Blue Jackets started getting shots through the defense about midway through the period and went on to outshoot Dallas 13-8 in the first.

Columbus took that momentum into the second period outshooting Dallas 17-2 in the first 11 minutes of the period. In that span, R.J. Umberger scored two goals for Columbus. His first was 6:17 into the period while on the power play. His second came 1:29 later.

Even though Columbus outshot Dallas 20-7 in the second, Dallas managed to tie the game at the end of a Blue Jackets power play. Trevor Daley had a two-on-one with Loui Eriksson who beat the stick of Mason.

Both teams’ defenses limited opportunities in the third with both teams only firing six shots on goal each. In the five minute overtime, Columbus had the better of the chances. Umberger had a chance to get a game-winning-goal and his first hat trick as a Blue Jackets. With Turco down, Umberger was going to try a wrap-around attempt on the goalie, but had the puck slid off his stick as his shoulder hit the post.

“The second period was the best period we have played all year in this building,” Hitchcock said. “But we didn’t like our start, we didn’t like our power play in the third period and in overtime. We were too casual with the puck…

“We have had games like this where we outplayed the team and not won. That is just the nature of the game. What happened for us was when we went up 2-1 and we had all those chances, and we left the game out there. We didn’t bury those chances, and that allowed them to score that goal at the end of the power play.”

“I thought the first period and third period, we did some good things,” Stars head coach Dave Tippett said. “The second period, we were behind it a little bit. They threw some pucks at the net. A lot of outside stuff that just led to a lot of scrambles, but give our guys credit, they hung in there.”

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Defense solid once again

The Blue Jackets have been getting quality defense against playoff caliber teams of late. They have allowed just seven goals in the last five games with games against in the two best teams in the Western Conference in that mix.

The shutdown pairing of Jan Hejda and Mike Commodore combined for 14 hits against Dallas.

“I just think as a group back there, they’re competing like heck,” Hitchcock said. “I think where we need help is up front. If we expect to go to the next level, we have to get more from them.”

“We’re playing well, it was disappointing not getting the two points especially with the power play opportunities, but we got a point,” Commodore said. “We got something out of tonight.”

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Postgame notes

Mason maintains his league best goals against average with a 2.05 average. He has allowed two goals or less 22 of the last 31 games. With his 18th and 19th goals of the season, Umberger is one goal shy of his career best of 20 goals. In the nine games since scoring a hat trick against Detroit Jan. 27, Rick Nash has only had one goal in that span. Fredrik Modin was out due to injury. Richards went down with an upper body injury with 10:41 remaining and missed the rest of the game.