‘He Gave Us A Chance’: Casey DeSmith Makes 29 Saves For Dallas Stars In Shootout Loss To Columbus Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Casey DeSmith made 29 saves on 30 shots for the Dallas Stars on Thursday night in his first start in nine days. The only goal he allowed in 65 minutes came with 3:14 left in regulation, and the Columbus Blue Jackets won 2-1 in a shootout at Nationwide Arena.

DeSmith was named the game’s second star. Columbus goalie Cam Talbot was the first star after stopping 31 of 32 shots.

DeSmith’s previous start came Oct. 27 at American Airlines Center, when he allowed five goals in a 5-1 loss to New Jersey after sitting for almost two weeks. Stars coach Glen Gulutzan wanted the time between his starts cut down after that.

“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.”

Jake Oettinger has started 12 of Dallas’ 16 games. He is 8-3-1 with a 1.91 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage, and 3 shutouts. On Tuesday, he allowed five goals on 25 shots in a 6-5 win at Washington.

In four starts, DeSmith is 1-2-1 with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. He is 35 and in his eighth NHL season.

Casey DeSmith Credits The Defense In Front Of Him

Dallas played without Miro Heiskanen, who has an upper-body injury, and still blocked 19 shots. Tyler Myers led the team with 5 blocks.

DeSmith sees the defending in front of him as part of who this team is.

“I’m just trying to do my best and the team’s been doing a good job defending for the most part,” DeSmith said. “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.”

Through 16 games, Dallas has allowed 36 goals. The Stars had given up five goals in each of their last two losses before Thursday, 5-1 to New Jersey and 5-2 to Montreal.

The things the group discussed doing better showed up for DeSmith in Columbus.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, we defended well,” DeSmith explained. “There were a lot of things we talked about doing a better job, and I thought we did that tonight.”

Thomas Harley played a season-high 28:31 with Heiskanen out, and rookie Trey Taylor played 9:59 in his second NHL game. Gulutzan singled out Taylor when he talked about how few chances Dallas gave up.

“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.”

Zach Werenski Ties It Before Columbus Wins The Shootout

Mikko Rantanen gave Dallas a 1-0 lead 6:27 into the third period. DeSmith held it until 16:46, when Zach Werenski skated in from the left faceoff circle and lifted a backhand over his left pad.

It was Werenski’s first goal of the season. He had been getting chances without finishing them.

“It’s been a while for me since I’ve scored, so happy that one went in,” Werenski said. “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.”

At the other end, Talbot made his biggest stops in the second period. He spun across the crease to glove an Esa Lindell wrist shot at 9:16 and stopped Jason Robertson on a breakaway at 16:45.

Dallas had moved the puck across the seam twice on the Lindell chance 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.

Overtime was scoreless. DeSmith stopped Charlie Coyle to open the shootout. Valeri Nichushkin then scored on a backhand, and Kent Johnson beat DeSmith between the legs for his second game-deciding shootout goal of the season. Talbot stopped Robertson and Tyler Seguin.

Dallas fell to 1-2 in shootouts this season. Rantanen put the tiebreaker down to chance.

“Shootout is always a coin toss,” Rantanen said. “It could go either way.”

Myers came away thinking about the point Dallas did not get.

“We did a lot of good things,” Myers said. “We still left a point out there, so there’s always room to get better.”

Dallas hosts the San Jose Sharks at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday at American Airlines Center. Oettinger is 9-2-0 in his career against San Jose with a 2.53 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.