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The Streak Holds: Stars Win Against Blue Jackets 3-2

Posted on by Ann Atkinson

The Dallas Stars were at home in the American Airlines Center tonight, looking for their sixth win in a row, seventh in a row at home. They faced off against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who were fresh off a 6-0 shutout loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

The Blue Jackets and the Stars have had a pretty even season so far. The Blue Jackets started tonight at 12-8-0 and the Stars have the same number of points but a different split at 11-7-2. The difference is that the Blue Jackets didn’t have the terrible start that Dallas did, and the Stars have been on an upward swing recently.

This is the second and final meeting between the two clubs.

First Period

The Minutemen scored in the first two minutes, as is now tradition. Roope Hintz had an early good look but tonight’s early goal scorer was Jason Robertson. The Stars won the face-off in Columbus’s zone and Jani Hakanpaa threw the puck on net from the top of the zone. That shot was blocked, skittered off Joe Pavelski back to Jason Robertson, who got the puck past Daniil Tarasov (playing his first NHL game) as he tried to close the gap.

This is notable because it gave the Stars an early lead but also because it’s the first time in NHL history that a team has done it.

There’s a stretch in the middle of the first period where not a lot happened except the Stars failing to get the puck through the neutral zone and failing to take a single shot on goal. Then, Boone Jenner scored to tie the game.

Denis Gurianov’s shot from the top of the zone was blocked by Jenner, who then carried the puck down into the Stars’ zone to score on Jake Oettinger. Gurianov tried to make up for the turnover and did knock Jenner off the puck, but Ryan Suter gave up at the blue line.

The Stars finally did record another shot on goal after about twelve minutes, but not much else happened in the first.

Shots: Dallas 6, Columbus 11
Score: Dallas 1, Columbus 1

Second Period

Alexandre Texier scored in the first two minutes of the second period. Suter tried to pinch at the blue line and instead gave the Blue Jackets a 3-on-2 chance into the Stars’ zone.

Notable for being the first time in 321 minutes the Stars have trailed.

In the middle of this period there was a lot of back and forth with a more concerted effort from the Stars. They actually upped their shot count by quite a lot and got some of those high danger chances that lead to goals.

And it did lead to goals. First, Jani Hakanpaa ended Tyler Seguin’s goal drought by lobbing a puck into the net off Seguin’s knee.

Then Pavelski had such a good deke around Sean Kuraly necessitated not one but two tweets.

The second comes with slo-mo:

The goal was Robertson’s, his second of the night and the fourth time he’s had two goals in a game but still waiting on his first hat trick.

Zach Werenski got the puck in the Dallas goal as the buzzer sounded but it was waived off for being too late.

Shots: Dallas 25, Columbus 17
Score: Dallas 3, Columbus 2

Third Period

This period might as well have not been played, it really ended in the second, but it was so let’s talk about it. Jamie Benn was called for boarding, this was the first penalty called in the game, but the Stars were able to kill the penalty.

Tarasov made some doorstop saves on Jason Robertson, still looking for his third goal. For a first NHL game, Tarasov showed a lot of poise. He played behind a decent defense in the first, but had to work a lot harder in the second and third.

The Blue Jackets were called for too many men, but the Stars weren’t able to convert the chance. With two minutes left to go in the game, the Stars kept Jason Robertson on the ice for his hat trick, but tired legs lead to a hooking call against Robertson with literally less than two seconds left in the game. Obviously nothing came of that and the Stars won 3-2.

With six wins, the Stars currently hold the longest win streak in the NHL.

Shots: Dallas 37, Columbus 22
Score: Dallas 3, Columbus 2

The Stars have the weekend off but will be at home against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday at 7:30 pm CST. Show up on time or you might miss the Minutemen.

Talking Points