One Point and No More in Columbus: Rantanen Breaks the Ice at 6:27 of the Third, Werenski Ties It With 3:14 Left, and the Blue Jackets Take the Shootout, 2-1
Dallas defended a 1-0 lead for ten minutes of the third period in Columbus and left with a single point. Mikko Rantanen scored the game's first goal after 46 scoreless minutes, Zach Werenski answered late, and Valeri Nichushkin and Kent Johnson settled the shootout for a 2-1 Blue Jackets win.
For 46 minutes and 27 seconds in Columbus, nobody scored. Then, in the space of one third period, the Dallas Stars took a lead, defended it for ten minutes, lost it with 3:14 to play, and lost the shootout after it — a 2-1 defeat to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday night, in a game that rewarded patience and then punished the team that blinked last.
Mikko Rantanen finally broke the ice 6:27 into the third period, giving Dallas the 1-0 lead the Stars had nearly claimed a period earlier, when a shot crossed the goal line a fraction of a second too late to beat the second-period horn. Columbus pushed back hard behind its goaltender, and the tying goal came from the defenseman who had been driving the push all night: Zach Werenski, in the low slot, flipped a backhand past Casey DeSmith with 3:14 left in regulation. It was Werenski's first goal of the season, on his fifth shot and 11th attempted shot of the game, and it forced overtime with the score 1-1.
The goaltenders own the rest of the record. Cam Talbot made 27 saves for Columbus — his fourth straight win in net — including the game's signature stop in the second period, turning away Jason Robertson's low wrist shot with his right pad on a breakaway with 3:15 left in the period, after which the Jackets killed the ensuing Dallas power play without allowing a shot through to him. DeSmith answered with 29 saves for Dallas. Columbus stands 7-7-0 after its second straight win; Dallas leaves at 9-5-2.
The shootout took three rounds to settle. Valeri Nichushkin and Kent Johnson scored in the second and third rounds for Columbus, and Talbot made the one save the format required of him to close it. The Stars take the standings point for the regulation tie and the lesson that has followed them on this trip: a one-goal lead, defended for ten minutes against a team with nothing to lose, is a lead held by fingernails.
