| The Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets played 60
minutes of hockey Tuesday night, but the game turned in
a 40 second stretch of the third period.
That's how long it took the Blue Jackets to score
after the Stars had tied the game at 1-1 with a power
play goal at 7:34 of the period.
A Jon Klemm pass to Antti Miettinen didn't click,
resulting in a turnover, a Columbus rush, an Anson
Carter shot, a Marty Turco mishandle on the rebound and
a Dan Fritsche goal.
That sequence of events was more frustrating to Stars
coach Dave Tippett than Turco's earlier miscue that led to
Columbus' first goal. On that one he went out to the
play the puck in the left faceoff circle, coughed it up
and David Vyborny beat Stephane Robidas, who was left
scrambling to guard the net.
"The first one was just an unfortunate error on his
part," said Tippett. "The one you've got a problem with
is you get it back to 1-1 and you turn the puck over the
neutral zone and then give up the rebound and give up
the goal right back. That's the one that takes the wind
out of your sail a little bit."
It was just a rough night for Turco.
"I was trying to catch it, and it hit me in the
palm," Turco said. "I grab 100 pucks a day like that.
The guys need for me to field it. It was a depressing
goal after fighting so hard to get [the tying] goal."
It was deflating, especially with Ken Hitchcock at
the helm of the Blue Jackets these days. The Stars got
basically nothing going five-on-five going against the
trapping Blue Jackets during the game, which meant they
were going to have to rely on their power play.
It created some chances and momentum, but just one
goal on eight chances. It misfired on two five-on-three
chances although one was for just 29 seconds.
Again, give credit to the Blue Jackets and Hitchcock.
"We were getting a lot of good looks on the power
play but the rebounds and the second and third efforts,
where you are usually scoring your goals, Hitch is kind
of a mastermind at that," said Stars captain Brenden
Morrow. "He's got them in position. They're blocking
shots. They're taking away the angles. They keep you
outside. They were pretty tough to play against
tonight."
Tippett said there were some positives about the
power play, especially in the first period.
"We talk a lot about the steps that our power play
has to have and it's effort and execution, but the last
step is finish. We didn't finish," he said.
Columbus goalie Fredrik Norrena had a lot to do with
that in the first period. He was outstanding and is
establishing himself as the Blue Jackets' No. 1
netminder. He was sharp on this night as were the rest
of his teammates.
The Blue Jackets had a little more jump to their game
and were a little better at getting to loose pucks and
winning puck battles. They looked like a Hitchcock
coached team.
"He's done a terrific job," said Norrena. "We've been
close in every game. We're a lot more organized."
They weren't just in this one. They were better. |
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