Dallas Stars 5, Columbus Blue Jackets 4 (OT)

Dallas finally wins the second game of a back-to-back.

It took five goals and four blown leads, but the Dallas Stars finally won the second game of a back-to-back Tuesday night in Columbus, defeating the Blue Jackets 5-4 in overtime. The win improved Dallas to 10-8-2 on the season and dropped Columbus to a conference-worst 5-13-2. It was the eleventh straight game in which the Stars had scored at least three goals, tying the franchise record set in 2001.

Photo not provided by the Dallas Stars

Pictured: the Stars' very underwhelming defense.

Dallas was playing without the services of sniper Michael Ryder, who was traded just before the game to the Montreal Canadiens for Eric Cole. Ryder led the team at the time with six goals and eight assists.

Dallas opened the scoring at 15:00 of the first period when Cody Eakin launched a shot that deflected off of Stars captain Brenden Morrow's skates and into the net. After a lengthy review, the goal stood, giving Morrow five goals on the season.

Columbus tied it just 1:21 into the second period when defenseman Nikita Nikitin scored on a long distance shot that eluded Dallas backup goaltender Richard Bachman to make it 1-1. Derek Roy reinstated Dallas' one goal lead at 5:28 of the second with his second goal of the year, but 51 seconds later Columbus' Derek Dorsett potted another one past Bachman to make it 2-2.

Dallas got the final goal of the period at 8:51, when rookie agitator Antoine Roussel deflected a Brenden Dillon shot from the point for his fourth goal of the season and a 3-2 lead heading into the third.

Dallas played well in the third, outshooting Columbus 12-6 but still managed to fall victim to shoddy defense and goaltending. Columbus tied it at 3-3 just 6:16 in when Cam Atkinson scored his second of the year. Cody Eakin then put Dallas ahead 4-3 seven minutes later with a weak shot that should have been stopped by Blue Jackets netminder Sergei Bobrovsky. It was Eakin's third goal of the season, and also represented rookie Reilly Smith's first NHL assist. But Dallas couldn't hold a lead against one of the worst offensive teams in the league, giving up the tying goal to R.J. Umberger with just 1:34 left in the game.

Neither team looked very eager to end it in overtime, until Loui Eriksson took a pass from Roy and potted his sixth of the season at 3:03 for the game-winner.

Bachman was mostly terrible in the game once again, stopping just 16 of the 20 shots he faced and improving to 2-3-0 on the season. Bobrobsky was significantly better in the loss despite some soft goals, making 34 saves on 39 shots in his first career loss to the Stars.

Dallas' next game is Thursday night at the AAC against the 7-7-4 Edmonton Oilers.