The Stars came home Tuesday night hungry for a win against the 2-5 Blue Jackets.
Instead, Dallas found themselves down 2-0 in the first period with only five shots on goal in response.
Columbus kicked off scoring early, when forward Adam Fantilli caught Jake Oettinger at a bad angle and slipped the puck past his glove side.
The Stars’ response was not strong enough. Every time it looked like there would be a chance to score off a missed shot, a Blue Jacket was where a Star should have been.
Head coach Glen Gulutzan said the team should be past the phase of adjusting to new systems because the old ways to lose never change.
“You look at some other teams around the league that are on the top of the league, and they’ve got that tidied up…” Gulutzan said. “You can say what D system you’re going to play, but the reality is how hard you work winning battles… and then having good players to score goals, which we do have, is still the recipe to win.”
An opportunity arose when Cole Sillinger got sent to the box after getting called for holding, but the power play was not enough to breath some life into Dallas.
Columbus got another point, courtesy of Bonne Jenner, on the board during a power play of its own after Maverick Bourque’s interference penalty sent the Stars on the penalty kill.
The Blue Jackets gave the Stars another chance when defenseman Ivan Provorov took a trip to the penalty box for holding. Dallas’ top line came onto the ice, and for the entire two minutes, stayed there. But, even the Stars’ best could not score.
Tyler Seguin, who is approaching 1000 NHL games, showed his experience when Colin Blackwell sent a puck towards Columbus goalie Elvis Merzļikins and Seguin deflected it into the net behind him. Adam Erne also earned an assist on that goal, which is his first point as a Dallas Star.
The third period began quietly, with scoring chances on both sides. But a Dallas turnover tipped the scale in Columbus’ favor and defenseman Denton Mateychuk whipped the puck by Oettinger and doubled the Blue Jackets’ lead.
Dallas continued to flail and found themselves attempting to kill a late holding the stick penalty by Colin Blackwell. Instead, Dmitri Voronkov found space and scored. Columbus tacked on another empty net goal as time ticked down.
“We all gotta step up in different ways. We’re missing key guys as well. We can have a ton of excuses if we want them,” Seguin said. “We don’t want them. So let’s start from scratch tomorrow, have a good practice and get ready for whoever’s next.”
The Stars move to a 3-3 record and will play again at home Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings at 8 p.m. CT.