In Columbus, Joonas Korpisalo made 25 saves and the Blue Jackets held off the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, 4-3.
Patrik Laine scored his first goal with Columbus since being acquired in a trade.
“Was it perfect? Absolutely not,” Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella said. “But we found a way to win, hung on with the goalie pulled plus the power play there at the end. We found a way to win.”
Jamie Benn,Roope Hintz (power play)and Jason Dickinson were the Stars’ strikers.
“We certainly played well enough to get a point, at least one point,” Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said. “We out-chanced them. We had a lot of shot attempts. We deserved a point at least out of that game. That’s how I assess it.
“We did not deserve to lose that game. If we lose in overtime or shootout, that’s fine.”
Jack Roslovic (obtained in the same trade as Laine) and Oliver Bjorkstrand also had goals for the Blue Jackets.
“It always feels good to contribute,” Roslovic said. “We were more confident as a group, but there were a lot of parts of the game that went back and forth and we did a good job pushing back when they were pushing forward.”
Cam Atkinson scored early in the third period to give the Blue Jackets breathing room at 4-2, with what would turn out to be the game-winner.
“I thought we played faster, more direct and at the same time with more confidence,” Bjorkstrand said. “The last game wasn’t good enough. We wanted to have a better game, and I thought we took a step in the right direction.”
Anton Khudobin made 21 saves in the loss.
“I think we actually played a good game,” the Stars’ Miro Heiskanen said. “We had lots of chances to score but we didn’t use those, [and] the opponent scored on their chances.”
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