Jackets pound Stars, 4-1.

By Jon Gabrielle, Stars correspondent

 

 

 

The Dallas Stars entered last night’s game coming off quite possibly their best effort of the season Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings. A 3-1 win in Motown.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t muster any momentum on Thursday night versus the Blue Jackets. The result may have been one of their worst of the season, a 4-1 defeat to Columbus.

An unusual quirk in the schedule had the Blue Jackets already here in Dallas, actually waiting for the Stars to come to town. However, head coach Marc Crawford was having none of it. “Every team has to play back to backs in this league, we can’t use that as an excuse.”

In fact, the Stars did come out strong for the first 7-8 minutes. They were forechecking well and had a power play chance only 1:37 into the contest. And although they moved the puck well, this would be a night that Columbus goalie, Steve Mason, although not challenged often, would make every timely save. He wound up the second star of the game.

After that initial flurry, the announced crowd had little to cheer about as Rick Nash, with James Neal in the box for hooking, knocked in his 14th goal of the season on the power play off a goal mouth scramble. From there most of the 16,155 patrons turned their attention to the scrums and fights that filled the first period boxscore.

Late in the period off a melee in the Stars zone, where both goalies were penalized for “leaving the crease,” Dallas found themselves on the power play. Any thoughts of tying the game going into the intermission were thwarted when Columbus winger Kristian Huselius picked up a weak pass by Ribeiro inside the offensive zone and was off to the races on a two on one. Using his teammate as a decoy, he cut back across the grain into the slot where he beat Marty Turco with a wrist shot from point blank range…with less than a second to go in the period.

Effectively, the game was over right there.

The Stars did attempt a comeback as Mike Modano scored off a one-timer from the off wing to cut the lead, but despite some excellent chances late in the second period, Columbus goalie Steve Mason would not be beat again. The Blue Jackets and former Stars coach, Ken Hitchcock, who had a small video tribute during the game, would leave town pleased with the 4-1 victory, adding, “we haven’t had a lot of success here.”

Modano, the three time member of the USA Olympic team has looked impressive since his return. In his last 4 games he has 3 goals and 5 points, quite possibly having one eye on the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I asked him about the upcoming games and he coyly deflected the issue. All he would say with a wry smile is,”we’ll see what happens?”

With many pundits writing off the 39 year old veteran as “past his prime,” using terms such as “it may be time for the US Olympic team to head in a new direction,” I cannot imagine a USA roster without him.

I get the sense…Modano agrees!

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