Dallas Star-Crossed In 4-2 Loss To Jackets
By Steve Sirk,  Columbus Wired (11/01/02)

So in the course of 35 minutes, the Stars had outshot their opposition by a combined 37-2. Those two shots allowed, however, were a game-winning overtime goal by Florida’s Valeri Bure on Wednesday and a Ray Whitney wristshot to give Columbus a 1-0 first period lead. For their shocking failure in the face of the most favorable success-slanted circumstances imaginable, I was reminded of a cliched insult involving a $20 bill hanging out of one’s zipper.

As the first period wore on, the cliché became more and more apt, as Dallas absolutely could not score, despite amassing a Nationwide Arena record 23 shots. Marc Denis countered with 23 saves, which bought enough time for the rest of his teammates to regroup and finish up strong in a 4-2 triumph.

The Blue Jackets scored on their very first shot of the game at 2:45. Captain Ray Whitney gathered the puck in the left corner, then made a quick foray into the left circle before sneaking a wrister past former presidential hopeful Ron Tugnutt.

Dallas was undeterred and kept firing at Denis as if he were a tin can on a fence top. Time and time again, Denis came up huge. Glove saves. Kick saves. Blocker saves. Pad saves. First saves. Second saves. Third saves. With all the savings, you’d think Denis was 10-10-220. Save a puck or two? Try 23!

Denis robbed Bill Geurin with a spectacular glove save from close range. He stymied several Sergei Zubov rockets from the point. He scooped a tricky Mike Modano wrister. He survived mad scramble after mad scramble in front of his net, always catching enough rubber to keep his team on top.

“I thought the key to the game was the first period when Marc really stood his ground for us,” said Jackets coach Dave King. “23 saves and we come out ahead 1-0 of all things. He was so unbelievable that he gave us a chance to win.”

Just when it looked like the Stars might have resigned themselves to the fact that Denis was superhuman, they actually managed to tuck one by the Columbus goalie just 1:01 into the second period. Rob DiMaio redirected another Zubov laser from the left point to knot the game at one goal apiece.

In the third period, the Jackets would take a 3-1 lead on goals by Mike Sillinger and Andrew Cassels. Sillinger knocked in a rebound off of a Jaroslav Spacek blast at 1:35, and Cassels ripped a slapper from the left circle at 6:28.

Barely a minute after Dallas’ Kirk Muller brought the Stars within one at 12:28, it was Tyler Wright who put the icing on the cake, sweeping in a rebound after Tugnutt stoned Grant Marshall on a breakaway. It was Wright’s fourth goal of the season. And the week.

The defense held firm from there on out and Jackets had themselves a well-deserved, and improbable, victory against a Western Conference power. The victory also continues the Blue Jackets trend of answering gut-wrenching losses with gutsy victories. Lose 7-1 in St. Louis? Beat Florida 4-1. Blow a late two-goal lead against San Jose? Blow out Los Angeles. Lose a heartbreaker in Chicago with 6.2 seconds left? Knock off mighty Dallas.

“It’s a very good sign,” said King. “If you can’t bounce back in this league you’re going to be in trouble. We’ve had some games that were hard to take, but coming back is a real gut-check. It says a lot about the players. It shows we have good internal leadership on this team.”

Having a goalie playing out of his freakin’ mind doesn’t hurt either.