DALLAS -- With Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Marc Denis stopping every puck he saw and even the ones he didn't, Dallas Stars coach Dave Tippett knew he had to try shaking things up. So to start the third period he reunited longtime linemates Pierre Turgeon and Scott Young.
What a move.
Young scored with 1:04 left in regulation, then won it in overtime with a long shot toward the goal that Turgeon tipped in to give the Stars a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets on Sunday night.
"I just went in front, started screening and somehow hit it," Turgeon said.
The Western Conference-leading Stars have won four in a row, with Turgeon scoring the winner in three straight. Dallas is 7-0-0-1 at home heading into a three-game road trip.
Whether Young and Turgeon remain together when the Stars play Wednesday night in Phoenix hasn't been determined. Because Tippett knows the former St. Louis teammates can click at a moment's notice, he seems to like the idea of pairing them up depending on the situation.
A perfect one presented itself in this game.
Dallas was getting lots of scoring chances against Denis, but had nothing to show for it. So Tippett figured some new combinations might change the Stars' luck.
"I looked around and was thinking about a lot of different things in my head," Tippett said. "You're just looking for a spark. Turgeon and Young jumped up and they did it for us."
Turgeon signed with Dallas a year ago, but struggled all season. Being apart from Young was considered part of the problem, so the Stars signed him, too, when he came on the market this summer.
They started the season on the same line, but neither produced. Tippett separated them and they've slowly started to come around. Turgeon is on a six-game point streak and Young has his only two goals of the season in the past three games.
"At some point I'll go back to it, sometimes I'll go away from it," Tippett said of the combination. "It's what the team needs at that point."
Geoff Sanderson put Columbus ahead midway through the first period with his 12th goal of the season, tied with Joe Sakic for the NHL lead, then Ray Whitney made it 2-0 in the second. That goal came after the Blue Jackets killed three penalties in a 7:43 span.
Denis was playing well and getting lucky on the few times he was out of position. Brenden Morrow and Jere Lehtinen, who left after taking a stick to the face that drew blood in the third period, both squandered chances when Denis was going the wrong way.
Dallas broke through when Bill Guerin, who had as many near-goals as anyone, scored off a cross-ice pass from Mike Modano with 6:54 left. Young's tying goal went in off a defenseman.
"It never seemed like we were going to get the first one," Young said. "Once we did, we were right there and everyone started to believe."
The Stars dominated overtime. Young nearly had the winner on a shot that hit the crossbar. Philippe Boucher and Modano came close, too.
Then Young took the puck from near the net and skated out toward the blue line. He threw the puck at the goal, a seemingly harmless maneuver to start a play, and it squirted off Turgeon and into the net.
"It's an opportunity lost," said Denis, who made 39 stops, one more than he had in a 4-2 victory over Dallas on Nov. 1.
Columbus fell to 1-4-1-1 on the road. The Blue Jackets were playing on consecutive nights for the first time this season, having tied in Nashville the previous night.
"Our legs fell off in the third," Sanderson said. "Dallas kept the pressure on and fatigue just set in. This was definitely one that got away. We had our chances to win."
Sanderson's goal came on a perfect give-and-go with Andrew Cassels. It was Sanderson's eighth goal in seven games. Cassels earned a point in his ninth straight game.
Notes
- Sanderson's seven-game goal streak and Cassels' nine-game point streak are the longest in franchise history. Sanderson also has points in eight straight, while Cassels has 14 points during his run.
- The Stars are 10-0-3 when Guerin scores.
The Associated Press News Service
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