Schedule, Stars Get the Best of the Blue Jackets
By Greg Dew,  Columbus Wired (3/11/03)

The NHL schedule maker was not out to do the Columbus Blue Jackets any favors Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. The Jackets, coming off of a road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night, four games in six nights overall, were treated to a rude homecoming as they lost 2-0 to the Western Conference leading Stars.

“Obviously they are one of the Stanley Cup contenders,” said Interim Head Coach Doug McLean. “But I thought four games in six nights was a lot of energy.”

The Jackets may have awaken a bit tired, but they were able to acclimate themselves to the light of the visiting Stars relatively well, mentally at least.

“I thought positionally we were pretty sound and Marc Denis was quite good,”  McLean said.

Yet when facing a team, which can replace a cog in their machine the way a newt regenerates a limb, a mentally prepared team running on empty will find it difficult to compete with a newly refortified team.

On a day that saw the trade deadline pass, three Stars entered the game with newly acquired Stu Barnes and former Blue Jacket captain Lyle Odelein. The reinforcements arrived to help alleviate the loss of missing in action players, Pierre Turgeon, Bill Guerrin and Marty Turco.

Turco’s replacement is none other than another former Blue Jacket, Ron Tugnutt. Tugnutt’s performance on Tuesday night gave him back-to-back shutouts and kept the Blue Jackets from gaining any momentum.

“I thought Tugnutt made five or six big, big saves that kept it from being 1-1 or 2-1,” said McLean. “If we could have scored it would have picked up the energy level.”

Of course the Jackets have a pretty good replacement of their own for Tugnutt in the form of Denis. Denis was able to keep the Stars at bay throughout the night with the exception of the two goals he could do little to stop.

“A goal like tonight, it was a fluky, fluky goal,” said Denis. “It was a
fluky bounce.”

Ulf Dahlen scored the first goal.

The second, scored by Steve Ott was no fluke, yet Denis had little chance to stop it. Fed by Kirk Muller and Derian Hatcher, Ott found himself alone, to the left of Denis barreling in on the Blue Jackets goaltender early in the second period.

Ott, moved to the center of the ice enough to get Denis to bite across the crease, Ott then put the puck onto his backhand and calmly flicked the puck past Denis for a 2-0 lead. On a night where the Jackets were struggling to maintain their energy, it was all the Stars would need.

“The effort was pretty consistent,” said Denis. “We just have to get our energy and confidence level higher. We’re not making excuses, every team has to go through this, we have to be confident and level-headed.”