Thursday, April 5, 2007

Columbus Blue Jackets 2, Dallas Stars 1 in OT

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars' woes against the non-playoff teams from the Central Division continued Thursday in Columbus and it moved the Stars closer to elimination in the race for the Pacific Division title. Rick Nash scored 1:04 into overtime as the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied for a 2-1 win over the Stars at Nationwide Arena.

The Stars, who lost to St. Louis on Monday, ended the season 1-1-2 against the Blue Jackets and are now 3-6-2 combined against Columbus, St. Louis and Chicago this season.

"We've got to get emotionally engaged in the game," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "If we think we are just going to finish off the year here and go to the playoffs, that's not going to happen. We'll find players who are willing to emotionally engage because that's the only chance we have in the playoffs."

Stu Barnes scored the lone goal for the Stars, who need a regulation win against Anaheim Friday night to stay alive in the Pacific Division race. The Stars' power play came up short on the night, missing on five full chances and officially going 0-6.

The Stars led 1-0 going into the third period but the Blue Jackets tied the game at the 13:03 when the two teams were playing four-on-four. Jason Chimera beat Sergei Zubov to a loose puck, chipped the puck to Manny Malhotra and the ex-Star beat Smith with a blast from the top of the left faceoff circle.

Blue Jackets goalie Fredrik Norrena, who stopped 19 of 20 shots in the game, made a spectacular stop on Stars captain Brenden Morrow late in the game to keep it a tie game and help force overtime.

In overtime, Nash won a puck battle with Mattias Norstrom along the boards, skated into the slot and ripped a shot into the top of the net to give the Blue Jackets the win.

The first period was fast paced and when it was over the Stars had a 1-0 lead. Shortly after a turnover by Columbus' Sergei Fedorov in his own end, Barnes scored when he got to the rebound of a Niklas Hagman scoring attempt and beat Norrena with a wrist shot from about ten feet out. The time of the goal was 6:50 of the first.

Columbus had one good flurry of chances, but Smith held his ground and made a nice glove save while on his back to keep it a 1-0 game.

The two teams played a scoreless second that featured seven power play chances. Dallas had five of them, including one abbreviated one. Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen had good chances, but Norrena came up with nice stops. Smith came up with a nice stop on Fredrik Modin while Columbus was on one of its power plays.

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