DALLAS, Texas — The Columbus Blue Jackets outshot the Dallas Stars but not their goaltender on Saturday night, October 31, falling 3-1 at American Airlines Center as Jake Oettinger made 25 saves for Dallas, Reuters reported.
Dallas scored both of its regulation goals in the first period. Jet Greaves took a delay-of-game penalty at 1:43 after inadvertently clearing the puck over the glass, and Mikko Rantanen scored on the ensuing power play, redirecting the puck for his team-leading seventh goal of the season, Reuters reported. Thomas Harley then scored his first goal of the season in the final second of the period, surprising Greaves with a one-timer from above the left circle, according to Reuters.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that the second goal was the night’s gut punch — it gave the Stars a 2-0 lead with 0.2 seconds left in the first period, capping another tough opening period for a Blue Jackets team whose scoring slump continued through a scoreless second.
Columbus (5-7-0) finally broke through in the third. After an apparent Valeri Nichushkin goal was taken off the board following an offside review early in the period, Damon Severson scored off a feed from Zach Werenski at 6:21 to cut the lead to 2-1, Reuters reported. Oettinger made five of his 25 saves over the final 11-plus minutes to keep Columbus from tying the game, The Columbus Dispatch reported, and Arttu Hyry scored into an empty net in the final second to seal the 3-1 final.
Greaves made 14 saves for Columbus, which has lost two in a row and finished its first multi-game road trip of the season with a 1-2-0 record, The Columbus Dispatch reported. One bright spot came on the blue line: defenseman Ivan Provorov made his season debut after being activated from injured reserve earlier Saturday and played 19:31, according to Reuters.
The loss keeps the Blue Jackets’ offense at the center of their early-season questions — one goal on 26 shots in Dallas, on a night when they carried the shot count 26-17 but could not solve Oettinger after the first-period damage was done.
What happens next: the Blue Jackets return home to Nationwide Arena to host the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, November 3, then face these same Stars again on Thursday, November 5, in Columbus to close the two-game season series, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Photo: Eric, CC BY-SA 2.0