‘Back To Our Identity’: Dallas Stars Fall To Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 In Shootout As Mikko Rantanen Scores In 100th Game
COLUMBUS, Ohio — In his 100th game with the Dallas Stars, Mikko Rantanen scored 6:27 into the third period Thursday night. That lead held until Zach Werenski tied it with 3:14 left in regulation. Valeri Nichushkin and Kent Johnson then scored in the shootout to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 2-1 win at Nationwide Arena.
The Stars head home 9-5-2 with three of the four points available on a trip that opened Tuesday night with a 6-5 win over the Washington Capitals. Columbus has won two games in a row to get back to 7-7-0.
Dallas beat Columbus 3-1 at American Airlines Center on Oct. 31. Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said this one still stung.
“We played them twice here in the last week and they’ve played some good hockey,” Gulutzan said. “So, it was a good hockey game, tight-checking and it was back to our identity.”
Casey DeSmith made 29 saves on 30 shots in his fourth start of the season. Cam Talbot stopped 31 of 32 shots for Columbus. Dallas outshot the Blue Jackets 32-30 and won 67% of the faceoffs.
DeSmith had not started since Oct. 27, and he thought the group in front of him cleaned up the things it had talked about doing better.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, we defended well,” DeSmith said. “There were a lot of things we talked about doing a better job, and I thought we did that tonight.”
Mikko Rantanen Breaks Through Before Zach Werenski Answers
Talbot kept the game scoreless in the second period. At 9:16 of the period, he was scrambling through the crease with his back to the play when he spun, slid to the right post, and gloved an Esa Lindell wrist shot.
Dallas had moved the puck across the seam twice on the sequence before Talbot turned his back and spun to find it.
“They don’t really teach that in goalie school,” Talbot said. “It was just a little pirouette in the crease and try to find the puck. They went seam once and then seam again and I was just kind of swimming and just turned my back, spun around because I knew it’d be a little bit quicker than catching my edge and rotating and pushing back.”
“So, I was able to find the puck at the last second and just throw my glove out there,” Talbot continued.
Later in the period, Talbot stopped Jason Robertson on a breakaway with his left pad at 16:45. A Dallas goal in the closing seconds of the period was waved off after video review showed the puck had not completely crossed the line before time expired.
The Stars broke through 6:27 into the third. Wyatt Johnston jumped on an Ivan Provorov turnover in front of the Columbus net and forced a save. Rantanen collected the rebound to the right of the net and waited for an opening at the near post.
The goal was Rantanen’s ninth of the season and came in his third straight game with a goal. Johnston’s assist extended his point streak to four games, with 1 goal and 5 assists in that span.
Rantanen thought Dallas played a pretty good 60 minutes.
“We were turning some pucks over, especially in the second period,” Rantanen said. “We should have had a goal or two probably there but forecheck was good. Our ‘D’ was doing a good job joining the rush, getting some chances from there and extending the O-zone time, so that was good.”
Rantanen has 114 points (36 goals, 78 assists) through his first 100 games with the franchise. Only Dino Ciccarelli (127) and Neal Broten (120) had more through 100 games.
Werenski answered at 16:46 of the third. He skated in from the left faceoff circle and lifted a backhand over DeSmith’s left pad for his first goal of the season, with assists from Johnson and Matthew Knies.
Werenski, who logged 29:21, credited Columbus for staying with its game against a Dallas team he rated highly.
“We stuck with it for 60 minutes,” Werenski said. “It’s a really good hockey team over there. We just kept coming and playing our game, it’s 1-0 but I liked our bounce back.”
The goal extended Werenski’s point streak to five games, with 1 goal and 6 assists in that stretch. He had been getting chances without converting them.
“It’s been a while for me since I’ve scored, so happy that one went in,” Werenski explained. “I’ve had chances. Feel like I’ve been playing a lot better lately. I feel like my game’s coming around and happy I got that one there tied up for the guys.”
“It’s kind of eating at me a little bit that I wasn’t able to produce and I wasn’t burying my chances,” Werenski added.
Johnson said Werenski puts the team result ahead of his own production.
“I’m not sure how much it was bothering him,” Johnson said. “He cares first about the team winning game so there’s games we lost where he probably felt like he could have scored, I’m sure that that weighed on him a bit.”
Johnson’s assist on the tying goal extended his point streak to six games, with 3 goals and 6 assists in that span.
Overtime was scoreless. DeSmith stopped Charlie Coyle to open the shootout, and Talbot turned away Robertson. Nichushkin scored on a backhand in the second round. After Talbot stopped Tyler Seguin, Johnson beat DeSmith between the legs to end it. Columbus is 5-0 in games that have gone past regulation this season.
DeSmith pointed to the defensive work in front of him as the way Dallas finds ways to win.
“I’m just trying to do my best and the team’s been doing a good job defending for the most part,” DeSmith explained. “And that’s just the way that we find ways to win games. That’s just the identity of this team and we’ve talked about that. There’s a lot of things we’ve been doing well on the defensive side of the puck that helps me out.”
Dallas fell to 1-2 in shootouts this season. Rantanen, who did not shoot Thursday, put the tiebreaker down to chance.
“Shootout is always a coin toss,” Rantanen explained. “It could go either way.”
Stars Play Without Miro Heiskanen Before San Jose Sharks Visit
Dallas played without Miro Heiskanen, who sustained an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s win at Washington and left after his first shift of the second period. Heiskanen averages 24:53 per game and has 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in 15 games.
Thomas Harley played a season-high 28:31 in his absence. Lindell logged 26:05, and Nils Lundkvist played a season-high 21:06. Rookie Trey Taylor played 9:59 in his second NHL game.
Columbus did not score until Werenski’s goal with 3:14 left, and Taylor was the defenseman Gulutzan singled out afterward.
“I thought our defense all played well,” Gulutzan explained. “When you give up that few of chances and you’ve got a young guy in [Trey Taylor], he played well. We’re not happy with the result and not getting the extra point, but our game looked better.”
DeSmith’s previous start came Oct. 27, when he allowed five goals in a 5-1 loss to New Jersey after sitting for almost two weeks. Gulutzan wanted the gap between his starts shortened.
“We talked about getting him in quicker, not so long between starts, and I thought he responded real well,” Gulutzan said. “He gave us a chance.”
Tyler Myers thought there was plenty for Dallas to take from the game. He played 19:50, more than three minutes above his season average.
“We did a lot of good things,” Myers said. “We still left a point out there, so there’s always room to get better.”
Through 16 games, Dallas has allowed 36 goals. Myers wants the group to go back over Thursday’s game for what can be cleaned up.
“We’ll take a look and see how we can get better,” Myers explained. “There were a lot of good things, a lot of good to take from it.”
Dallas was also without Sam Steel, who missed the game for personal reasons. Steel is expected back Saturday.
Heiskanen is doubtful to play Saturday. After that game, Dallas does not play again until Thursday, and Gulutzan pointed to that break if Heiskanen sits.
“If he’s ready tomorrow, we would use him, but I think that’s doubtful. We’ll see,” Gulutzan said Friday. “If he’s not ready for tomorrow, those four days are really going to help.”
Dallas hosts the San Jose Sharks at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday at American Airlines Center to open a four-game homestand. San Jose is 7-9-1 and lost 4-1 at Minnesota on Friday. Dallas beat the Sharks 5-0 in Dallas on Oct. 5.
