It was almost like a “do over” for the Dallas Stars on Sunday at Nationwide Arena and they didn’t flub it.
Unlike what happened in the Blue Jackets’ 3-2 overtime victory over them Saturday, when Zach Werenski scored with just 4.5 seconds left in OT, the Stars forced this one to a shootout and won it in the third round on a goal by Alexander Radulov.
Just like Saturday, Werenski had another chance to end it before time ran out in OT, but this time Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger made the save about a second before the horn sounded.
Cam Atkinson, Patrik Laine and Max Domi all came up empty in the shootout for Columbus, which cleared the way for the Stars’ Radulov to win it with a great move in his first game back from a lower-body injury that kept him out 16 games.
Joe Pavelski scored Dallas’ goal in regulation and Werenski scored for the Blue Jackets (11-12-7), who got 34 saves during an impressive outing for goalie Joonas Korpisalo.
Oettinger outdueled him with 29 stops for the Stars (9-9-6).
Breaking from a season-long trend, the Blue Jackets didn’t score the first goal for just the 10th time in 30 games.
This time, the Stars did with 5:32 left in the first period, when Pavelski skated right in front of Korpisalo and redirected a short feed from Joel Kiviranta into the net for a 1-0 lead on his 14th goal of the season.
That remained the game’s lone goal through the rest of the first, all of the second period and nearly seven minutes of the third – a stretch Werenski finally changed with a blast from the right point.
Werenski, who won a game Saturday against the Stars with 4.5 seconds left in overtime, tied it 1-1 on his second goal in as many days and third of the season. This one was scored off a face-off, which was won by Jack Roslovic back to Seth Jones, who quickly slid it over to his defense partner for a long slapshot through traffic.
After zipping between two Stars players, the puck ripped into the upper right corner of the net just under the crossbar and beat Oettinger – who didn’t see it coming until too late.
It was a huge goal for the Blue Jackets, who’d struggled most of the game to generate scoring chances against a stout Dallas defense. Werenski’s tally also rewarded Korpisalo for a pair of great saves in the final four minutes of the second period, which prevented the Stars from extending a 1-0 lead.
The first of those saves was a sprawling pad stop at the goal line to deny Dallas captain Jamie Benn from scoring, after Blake Comeau had just pinged a shot off the crossbar. The second was against Radulov, who was stonewalled on an open shot from the low slot two minutes later.
Radulov got the better of their second head-to-head matchup, faking a shot to the far side to get Korpisalo moving on his shootout goal and then pulling the puck to his backhand for a shot into the short side of the net.
