Stars Beat Blue Jackets

DALLAS — Despite watching his team defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 on Tuesday at American

Airlines Center, Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff was less than pleased.

“Pretty frustrated with the way we played,” Ruff said. “The mental part of the game, the focus part, the way we played in the neutral zone was pretty disappointing. We’ve worked hard to get to where we’re at, and we’re on a little bit of a roller coaster ride with the way we’re playing right now. I have to straighten that out.”

Stars center Tyler Seguin scored goals 30 seconds apart late in the second period and goaltender Kari Lehtonen stopped 34 of 35 shots as Dallas bounced back from a 3-0 loss at St. Louis on Saturday, the first time Dallas had been shut out this season.

After the loss, the Blue Jackets called a players-only meeting and the locker room did not open until 15 minutes after the game.

“I’m hoping that’s a step in the right direction,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said of the meeting. “I hope it was productive for them because that’s the key. This is about them. If it’s productive for them, I love it.”

Defensemen Johnny Oduya and Alex Goligoski and center Mattias Janmark also

scored for Dallas (23-6-2), the lone team in the NHL yet to lose consecutive games this season.

Stars left winger and captain Jamie Benn assisted on Seguin’s second goal, his 400th career point.

Columbus (11-19-3) got its lone goal from center Scott Hartnell early in the second period while on the power play.

Blue Jackets rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo stopped 23 of 27 shots before being replaced by starter Curtis McElhinney to begin the third period.

The first shot McElhinney faced was the backhand goal scored by Janmark, who skated around the left side of the Columbus net before finishing top shelf.

McElhinney stopped six of seven shots in relief of Korpisalo.

Seguin’s first goal came with 3:34 remaining in the second when he scored with a wrist shot through Korpisalo’s legs to give Dallas a 3-1 lead. Seguin added a second tally 30 seconds later, this time beating Korpisalo under his glove from the slot for his 17th of the season.

“I went to shoot it, and I kind of lost it. I got a fortunate bounce,” Seguin said of his second goal.

That second-period flurry, which put Dallas up 4-1, crushed Columbus.

“That six or seven minutes buried us,” Tortorella said. “I thought we had some good chances in the second but they surged and they scored the goals and our chances, we just didn’t finish.

With 2:07 remaining before the first intermission, Oduya gave Dallas a 1-0 lead with his third of the season. Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson was unable to control the puck to the right of the Columbus goal.

Oduya capitalized, sending a wrist shot from the left point under Korpisalo’s left arm.

The Blue Jackets tied it early in the second when Hartnell scored his 13th of the season 4:32 into the frame with Columbus on the power play. Twenty-six seconds after Stars defenseman Patrik Nemeth was whistled for high-sticking, Hartnell got his stick in front of a pass from center Alexander Wennberg, sending the puck into the right side of the Dallas net to make it 1-1.

Goligoski tapped in a carom off the end boards with 6:58 remaining in the second to make it 2-1 in favor of Dallas. Stars right winger Ales Hemsky fired a wrist shot to the left of the Columbus goal from the slot, but Goligoski played the carom perfectly, tapping the puck into the top right corner of the net for his third of the season.

“I knew they were a little tired,” Goligoski said. “Hemsky came right off the bench and was able to put it towards the net. I just kind of followed it up and got a good bounce off the back wall.”

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