The speedy forward, off a pretty pass from defenseman Niklas Grossman, split a couple of Columbus defenders, broke in on net and slipped the puck between the legs of Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire at 3:11 of third period to pull the Stars into a 1-1 tie.

"He's been excellent for two or three days now, so that's just the kind of play you're looking for," Stars coach said of Conner. "You're looking for a little spark there, somewhere, and he gets a quick break and gets the goal we needed. Their goaltender was very, very good before that. He made some great saves. So did ours, but we needed the one equalizer and he got it."

Said Conner: "It was a great pass. It was right on my tape. I was kind of surprised that I caught it. I just kind of kept going to the net and I was able to beat him."

It was the one goal the Stars needed on this night in what turned out to be a goaltending duel between Leclaire and Turco, both of whom came up with some big stops in the game.

The Blue Jackets got their big play earlier in the first period when Rick Nash came off the bench on a line change, stole a puck in the Dallas zone and set up Nikolai Zherdev in front of the Turco.

And that was it. There were some excellent chances in the game, but Leclaire and Turco were up to the task.

Leclaire had great stops on Stu Barnes and Brenden Morrow late in the first, and then a series of stops on Jussi Jokinen late in the second. Turco stopped Jason Chimera and Rick Nash on breakaways.

"Our goalie was our best player today – their goalie was their best player," said Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock. "It was a 1-1 hockey game and it could have been 5-4, both guys were that good."

The Stars were wrapping up a road trip and the Blue Jackets were coming off one in Western Canada. Both were tired, which led to some sloppy play at times and the goalies were left to clean up the mess.

"That's low scoring with lots of turnovers," said Tippett. "I think you got two teams that are a little bit fatigued. Lots of chances. Both goaltenders, I thought, were excellent. That's kind of the game we thought it was going to turn out to be right there."

It came down to the shootout and the Stars got the extra point, thanks to a pressure stop by Turco on Nash, must have goals by Mike Modano and Mike Ribeiro and then the winner by Niklas Hagman.

That extra point added up to eight points of a possible 12 on the six game road trip. An impressive feat considering those six games were played over nine days against some pretty stiff competition.

"Points in four of six games on this trip, you have to like that," said Tippett.

Now they get a day off and get to play San Jose on Wednesday.

• The Stars were a perfect 5-5 on the penalty kill Monday, pushing them to 42-44 on the PK over the last 11 games.
• The Stars were 0-5 on the power play and have failed to score on the power play in four of their last five games. They are 2-21 during that stretch.
• Center Mike Modano missed a good part of the first period after being clipped by a teammate's stick and needing repair work done on his chin.
• Niklas Grossman's assist on the Chris Conner goal in third period was his first NHL point.
• The Stars activated Mattias Norstrom from injured reserve Monday, but he did not play. Jere Lehtinen was placed on IR.
• The Dallas Stars will not practice Tuesday.

Stars defenseman Matt Niskanen, who has the first period intermission guest on the Stars broadcast network Monday night, commenting on the NHL suspending Flyers forward Riley Cote three games for the hit on Niskanen in Saturday's games in Philadelphia