For the second time this season, Marty Turco played very well making few mistakes. But just like back on January 10th, those mistakes proved to be one too many as the Stars went winless in Columbus in their season series with the Blue Jackets. But at least they got a puck past a Blue Jacket netminder.
Too little, too late, though, as that tally represented one of the few trouble spots for Steve Mason on the night.
The story from Columbus' side of things was their defense. For the most part, they kept Dallas on the perimeter and were damn near hermetic at keeping the Stars out of the offensive zone when they surrendered a power play.
And they made an Anton Stralman seeing eye shot from the point that went in over Turco's right shoulder stand up until R.J. Umberger seemed to have salted things away with an empty net goal. That is, before Steve Ott scored a fluky goal that he probably shouldn't have been awarded by virtue of shoving Antoine Vermette into Mason.
Fittingly, it became a moot point when the Stars couldn't find another goal in the final 46 seconds.
So on a night where general manager Joe Nieuwendyk openly stated that this stretch of five games before the Olympic break would decide whether the Stars would be sellers or buyers at the deadline, let's just say the guys in the white unis did little to dissuade Nieuwy from phoning his fellow NHL GM's during the Olympic Break and telling them, 'This is who we have to offer.'
We'll have more later on this frustrating loss.