Oct 18, 2007 5:06 am US/Central
Stars Beat Blue Jackets In Shootout
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ―
Jussi Jokinen already proved to be a shootout success story. Now he's showing off another move.
Jokinen scored in regulation and had the only shootout goal to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night before the smallest crowd to watch an NHL game at Nationwide Arena.
"I never know what he's going to do," Dallas goaltender Mike Smith said of Jokinen's shootout repertoire. "When he dreams at night, he dreams of what he's going to do in a shootout."
Jokinen, who tied it 1-1 early in the first period, was the second skater during the shootout. He beat Fredrik Norrena with a deke and a backhander, scoring his 16th shootout goal in 26 career NHL tries.
"I have added a couple of moves the last couple of years. That move was pretty new," Jokinen said with a grin. "I have one more new move, so I think I have four or five moves now. I pick the right one based on whatever goalie there is. Confidence is still the biggest thing right now."
Rick Nash, who scored the Blue Jackets' first goal, went last in the shootout and tried a quick shot between Smith's leg pads but had his drive blocked.
The crowd of 11,820 was the smallest announced attendance for a Blue Jackets regular-season home game.
In other NHL games Wednesday night, it was: New Jersey 5, Pittsburgh 4; St. Louis 3, Chicago 1; and Anaheim 3, Nashville 1.
The Stars forced overtime when Brenden Morrow converted a one-timer from the high slot with 1:11 remaining -- seconds after Dallas pulled Smith for an extra attacker. Mike Ribeiro set up behind the net and waited before saucering a pass to Morrow for his third of the season.
"Our guys stayed with it," coach Dave Tippett said. "They talked about before the game they wanted to find a way to win. They found a way to win."
After Nash and Jokinen traded goals in a 95-second span of the first period, the Blue Jackets took a 2-1 lead at 8:24 of the third period on Jiri Novotny's diving jam shot after his first shot hit the post. Nikolai Zherdev dug the puck off the boards and passed to Nash, who backhanded a centering pass that Novotny was able to push toward the goal, going off the far post. Novotny, a free-agent acquisition, then dived between two Stars, extending his stick to poke the puck into the goal for his first goal for Columbus.
Nash had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets, and Zherdev had two assists.
"We didn't put the hammer down and we paid for it in the end," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We hd a chance numerous times in the first half of the game. When you have a 2-1 lead and are given odd-man rushes, you have to score and that's what we didn't do. It came back to haunt us."
Smith finished with 33 saves, Norrena stopped 28 shots.
"We were going through some struggles," Smith said. "Tonight was a big one for our team. It was nice to come from behind and get two points."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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