Ouch!  Dallas pounds Jackets (1/31/09)
by Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

The challenge of every NHL team is getting up for back-to-back games.

Twenty-four hours after beating Ottawa, the Columbus Blue Jackets came out and laid an egg in the first period and ended up dropping a 7-3 decision to the Dallas Starts in front of a near-sellout crowd of 18,042 in Nationwide Arena.

“We didn’t have the kind of start we wanted,” Jackets winger Kristian Huselius said. “We lost the game in the first period. We did not play our (style of) hockey tonight and that’s how we have to play to win.”

Dallas scored three times in five minutes to grab a 3-0 lead and never looked back. Columbus rallied to get within 3-2, but the Stars responded with two straight to put the game away.

“When we made it 3-2, we had a lot of momentum,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “The fourth goal was a real killer. Then we come back 5-3 and the sixth goal was a killer.”

It was only the third loss in Nationwide Arena for the Jackets since Nov. 27. The loss drops Columbus to a four-way tie for sixth place with 53 points.

James Neal scored twice to lead the Stars, while Steve Ott, Loui Eriksson, Brian Sutherby, Trevor Daley and Trevor Hutchinson also added tallies. Marty Turco stopped 35 shots.

Huselius scored a goal and added an assist to lead the Jackets. Jared Boll and Fedor Tyutin also scored for Columbus, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.

“We were not ready—all 20 of us,” Huselius said. “We have to regroup and get better.”

Steve Mason looked very human, giving up three goals on five shots a day after shutting out Ottawa. He was yanked at 10:43 of the first for Wade Dubielewicz, who made his Blue Jackets debut. Dubielewicz wasn’t that much better, giving up four goals on 23 shots to take the loss.

“It was disappointing,” Dubielewicz said. “When it comes down to it, I wasn’t good enough tonight.”

Neal was in the right place at the right time for his first goal. Matt Niskanen’s slap shot at hit off the skate of Ole-Kristian Tollefsen right to Neal, who tapped the puck in the goal.

Eriksson made it 2-0 with a great solo effort. He took a shot on a 2-on-1 break which Marc Methot blocked, but he got it back and put it past the skate of Mason at 8:22.

Less than two minutes later, Sutherby beat Mason to end his night.

“They really jumped on us at the beginning and had a couple of bad bounces, but regardless, it was too late,” Jackets defenseman Mike Commodore said.

Huselius got Columbus on the board when he beat Turco off the crossbar at 17:32. It was his 14th of the season.

Tyutin hit a slap shot off a feed from Huselius on the power play at 1:38 for his fifth of the campaign.

Neal scored his second goal of the game at 13:29 off a Mike Modano rebound to push the Dallas lead back to 4-2.

The Stars regained a two-goal lead with a goal by Ott at 18:58.

Boll scored his third of the season 4:34 into the third period when he slammed in a rebound off a Jason Williams shot.

Daley got the goal back for the Stars off a Kris Russell turnover at 7:10. Hutchinson added the final nail in the coffin with 1:58 remaining in the game.

“Our goaltending wasn’t very good tonight, but they aren’t the total blame,” Hitchcock said. “We got beat to way too many pucks in our own zone. We were really soft in our own zone today. Some performances surprised me. A lot of guys didn’t battle at the level that they normally battle at.”

Columbus hosts St. Louis Tuesday at 7 p.m.