Jackets lose 2-1 to Dallas in OT shootout
By Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore

Two tired teams met at Nationwide Arena Monday night and battled hard for 65 minutes. In the end, the Dallas Stars won the shootout and defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 in front of 12,233 at Nationwide Arena and in front of a nationally televised audience.

Niklas Hagman beat Jackets goaltender Pascal Leclaire with a backhand in the fifth round of the shootout for the game-winner. Mike Reberio and Mike Modano also scored in the shootout.

Columbus, who opted to shoot first, got goals from Nikolai Zherdev and Curtis Glencross. Had Leclaire made a save on either of the next two skaters, the Jackets would have won. Dallas won both games in Columbus this fall by a shootout.

“We were one save from the win, so it’s frustrating.” Leclaire, who had 33 saves, said. “I thought we played a good game overall. It was a game that could have gone either way and tonight it didn’t go our way.”

Both teams looked sluggish. The Jackets were coming off a weeklong Western Canadian road trip and arrived back in Columbus Sunday late afternoon. Dallas was playing in its final stop on a six-game road trip.

“We got everything we could out of this group tonight,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “There was not much left at the end. We were unlucky enough to get two points with leading the shootout a couple of times, but we squeezed everything we could.”

Nikolai Zherdev scored for Columbus in regulation, while Chris Conner scored for Dallas.

Nash fed Zherdev at 13:50 of the first to give the Jackets a 1-0 lead. Nash skated toward the crease and flicked the puck toward the net. Zherdev redirected it past Stars’ goaltender Marty Turco.

The Stars tied the game 3:11 into the third period when Chris Conner split the defense of Kris Beech and Kris Russell and hit a backhand shot through the legs of Leclaire.

“I think you got two teams that are a little bit fatigued,” Stars coach Dave Triplett said. “Lots of chances. Both goaltenders, I thought, were excellent. That’s kind of the game we thought it was going to turn out to be right there.”

The game marked the return of Leclaire, who missed the Jacket’s last two games with a leg injury. He stopped several shot on a Stars power play late in the second period, including a point-blank shot by Jussi Jokinen.

“I felt pretty good,” Leclaire said. “I had two good practices and was close on Saturday, but we decided to take an extra day. I saw the puck well and everything.”

Dallas outshot Columbus 34-26. Turco had 25 saves. Both teams went 0-5 on the power play.

The Jackets host Colorado Wednesday at 7 p.m.