The Dallas Stars got the kind of game they wanted in Columbus. They just didn’t get the result.
Two nights after a wild 6-5 win in Washington, Dallas went right back to its tighter, cleaner identity Thursday at Nationwide Arena. The Stars gave up only one goal in 65 minutes, blocked 19 shots, won 67% of the faceoffs and killed both Columbus power plays. Still, the Blue Jackets walked away with a 2-1 shootout win after Zach Werenski tied it late in regulation.
Werenski erased Mikko Rantanen’s third-period goal with 3:14 left, then Columbus finished the job in the shootout. Valeri Nichushkin and Kent Johnson scored in the tiebreaker, while Cam Talbot stopped Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin.
Dallas had to settle for one point, and coach Glen Gulutzan didn’t hide his frustration about leaving the extra one behind.
“We played them twice here in the last week and they’ve played some good hockey,” Gulutzan said. “So, it was a good hockey game, tight-checking and it was back to our identity.”
The Stars had been chasing that version of themselves after allowing five goals in each of their previous two losses, 5-1 to New Jersey on Oct. 27 and 5-2 to Montreal on Oct. 29. Through 16 games, they’ve given up 36 goals and killed 47 of 52 penalties, a 90.4% rate.
Thursday’s lineup made the defensive effort even more notable. Miro Heiskanen was out with an upper-body injury, and rookie Trey Taylor was in just his second NHL game. Gulutzan singled out Taylor while praising the group in front of him.
“I thought our defense all played well,” Gulutzan explained. “When you give up that few of chances and you’ve got a young guy in [Trey Taylor], he played well. We’re not happy with the result and not getting the extra point, but our game looked better.”
Casey DeSmith backed that up with 29 saves on 30 shots, and he said the Stars followed through on the things they’d talked about cleaning up.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, we defended well,” DeSmith said. “There were a lot of things we talked about doing a better job, and I thought we did that tonight.”
Rantanen scored 6:27 into the third period to give Dallas a 1-0 lead, and it was his third goal in three games. He also saw the game in simple terms afterward.
“Today, we played a pretty good 60,” Rantanen said.
Columbus, which finished with 30 shots, kept pushing until Werenski found the equalizer. He skated in from the left faceoff circle and slipped a backhand over DeSmith’s left pad after Dallas had held the lead for a little more than 10 minutes.
“We stuck with it for 60 minutes,” Werenski said. “It’s a really good hockey team over there. We just kept coming and playing our game, it’s 1-0 but I liked our bounce back.”
The Stars outshot Columbus 32-30, but the shootout swung the night. Dallas is now 1-2 in shootouts this season.
Rantanen didn’t take a shot in the tiebreaker and chalked it up to the randomness that comes with it.
“Shootout is always a coin toss,” Rantanen explained. “It could go either way.”
Tyler Myers logged 19:50 and blocked five shots, and he said the group still found plenty to like even while it left Columbus short.
“We did a lot of good things,” Myers said. “We still left a point out there, so there’s always room to get better.”
Dallas dropped to 9-5-2 and remains third in the Central Division with 20 points. The lineup may shift again soon, with Sam Steel missing Thursday for personal reasons and expected back Saturday.
That means more adjustment for a forward group that has been changing on the fly.
“We haven’t had a lot of consistency with the lines because guys are coming in and going out,” Gulutzan said. “But we’ve got to plug and play and just move forward. We pride ourselves on all guys doing the things that need to be done … the non-negotiable.”
The Stars open a four-game homestand Saturday against the San Jose Sharks at 7 p.m. CT at American Airlines Center.
Winnipeg comes in Thursday, followed by Buffalo on Nov. 14 and Florida on Nov. 15.
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