Columbus fails to ‘lay the hammer down’, falls to Dallas 3-2 in OT shootout
By Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

As Ken Hitchcock continues to mold the Columbus Blue Jackets into a championship caliber team, it will continue to have growing pains. With two leads, the Jackets didn’t “lay the hammer down,” as Hitchcock put it and Dallas rallied for a 3-2 shootout win at Nationwide Arena Wednesday night.

The Jackets backed off after taking a 2-1 lead midway though the third period. Jason Chimera and Manny Malhotra had a pair of break-a-ways that could have extended the lead.

Instead, Brendan Morrow scored with one minute, 11 seconds remaining in regulation and Jussi Jokinen scored the lone goal in the shootout to give the Stars the come-from-behind victory.

“It’s really unacceptable,” Jackets winger Rick Nash, who scored a goal, said. “Good teams finish those games and win those games (with) no problems. We really have to learn to protect a lead, especially at home.”

Jiri Novotny scored a power play goal for the Jackets in regulation. Fredrik Norrena stopped 28 shots.

Nash gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead 1:42 seconds into the game with a wrist shot that went top shelf. Zherdev fed him the puck on a two-on-one break.

The Stars got the goal back off a Columbus turnover less than two minutes later. Deep in the Jackets zone, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen had the puck stripped from Stu Barnes and fed Jokinen with a cross-ice pass into a near-empty net.

“The first two and a half periods were terrific, we played really hard, really well,” Hitchcock said. We did exactly what we needed to do to beat that team and if we play that way every time, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games.”

Novotny reclaimed the lead for the Jackets after tipping in a loose puck that hit the post off a Nash shot from the board at 8:24 of the third.

Brendan Morrow scored with 1:11 remaining to force overtime. He hit a slap shot from the slot that went between the legs of Norrena, who was screened on the play. The Stars had goalie Mike Smith pulled for the extra attacker on the goal.

“I just kept my upper body up a little bit too long and he found the five-hole,” Norrena said. “It’s too soft a goal at that point. We just had to stay tight and force them. We got a little bit passive there. And of course, I have to save that puck. No excuses.”

Nash said that the blame of Morrow’s goal was not on Norrena. Morrow was wide open in the slot.

“We should be a bit tighter,” he said. “Could of, should of, would of, it doesn’t matter. It’s over now. By any means it wasn’t Freddy’s fault. He kept us in the game.”

Columbus outshot Dallas 35-30. Smith had 33 saves for the Stars, who went 0-3 on the power play. The Jackets scored one goal on five attempts.

The Jackets play in Buffalo on Friday and return home Sunday to host Vancouver at 5 p.m.