Columbus Blue Jackets 5, Dallas Stars 4 (OT)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Stars lose their home opener with some seriously ugly goals.

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars rallied to get a point out of Friday night's season opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the 5-4 overtime loss left them looking for more than just the extra point.

"Obviously it's disappointing to get only one point out of this game," said defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We expect a lot of ourselves. That's not how we want to play. ... We've got to play for 60 minutes. Until we play for 60 minutes, it's going to be hard to win hockey games."

The Stars over came a shaky first period to dominate the second period and carry a 2-1 lead into the third period. But they gave up three straight goals early in the third period and were forced to score two late goals to tie and then lost the extra point when Rick Nash scored with 21 seconds left in the extra period to give the Blue Jackets the extra point.

"It was a game that probably had more ebbs and flows in it than any one we've been involved in in a long time," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said.

There was a bit too much ebb and flow for the Stars, who, In a word, are striving for more consistency after their first test of the regular season.

"During the preseason we heard lots of excuses, - 'We'll be alright.' Now we are looking for performances," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "One of things we are going to have around here is consistency. And when you have a game like that, where you are up and down and all over the place, you are all over the place because of mistakes. The fewer mistakes you make the better chance you have to win."

The Stars were plagued by some defensive breakdowns, especially in that stretch of that third period when Columbus took control of the game. Lost puck battles, players out of position, a missed hit that took two Stars out of a play.

"They are plays you can't make if you are going to be a good team," said Tippett. "We knew we had work to do. We've got some people we've got to get acclimated. We've got work to do."

Brenden Morrow, James Neal, Brad Richards and Trevor Daley scored the goals for the Stars. Stephane Robidas had three assists on the night. Stars goalie Marty Turco stopped 22 of 27 shots.

The Stars, who had some issues on the power play during the preseason, were 1-7 on Friday night but they took control of the game thanks to power play chances.

Morrow's five-on three- power play goal and Neal's first career NHL goal, which came shortly after a power play expired, put the Stars up 2-1 in the second period. Neal, playing in his first NHL game, was outstanding.

"I thought he was excellent. He could have been our best player tonight," Tippett said. "I thought he was very good."

After the Stars' meltdown early in the third period, they got back into it when Richards and Daley scored 33 seconds late in the period to tie the game at 4-4 and force the overtime.

But the Blue Jackets scored late in extra session when Nash took a pass from Jason Chimera and ripped a shot past Turco from the high slot.

"I got it, closed my eyes and fired away," said Nash "We showed a lot of character to come back."

The Stars showed some character to come back and get a point out of the game, but Tippett said that wasn't the only point he was taking out of it.

'I look at the whole scope of the game, what we do in the whole scope of the game and put that in perspective," he said. "I didn't see enough consistency in our group to feel good about the game whether we got a point or not."