Heika’s Take: Stars can’t come up with second point in shootout loss to Blue Jackets

Losses are losses in the NHL, so the Dallas Stars were disappointed Thursday after losing 2-1 in a shootout at Columbus.

Yes, the team got a point in the standings and sits 9-5-2 right now. Yes, it had a good defensive reset after a crazy 6-5 win in Washington Tuesday. But, the bottom line is Dallas had a 1-0 lead with four minutes left in regulation, so that left a sour taste.

“We did a lot of good things,” said defenseman Tyler Myers. “We still left a point out there, so there’s always room to get better.”

That’s the tough part in a game like that. The two teams were facing each other for the second time in a week, so there was that intensity on the ice. Both Casey DeSmith for Dallas and Cam Talbot for Columbus were strong in net. And the game was a tight-wire act for pretty much all 65 minutes.

Mikko Rantanen scored on a rebound to give Dallas a 1-0 lead at the 6:27 mark of the third period. And then Columbus rallied back with a goal from Zach Werenski (his first of the season) at 16:46 of the third.

That forced overtime, where neither team scored, and a shootout, where Columbus scored twice.

“Shootout is always a coin toss,” Rantanen said. “It could go either way.”

And that was the disappointing part. The encouraging part was the fact the Stars were coming off a crazy game and had to play without top defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who is day-to-day with an upper body injury. Thomas Harley played 28:31, Esa Lindell logged 26:05 and Nils Lundkvist played 21:06, a season-high for him.

“I thought our defense all played well,” coach Glen Gulutzan said. “When you give up that few of chances and you’ve got a young guy in [Trey Taylor], he played well. We’re not happy with the result and not getting the extra point, but our game looked better.”

And that can be important in a long season. Three of the four games before the 6-5 win Tuesday were tough defensively. The team, as a whole, has been inconsistent. So this was a bit of consistency.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, we defended well,” said DeSmith, who finished with 29 saves. “There were a lot of things we talked about doing a better job, and I thought we did that tonight.”

The veteran backup goalie gave up five goals in a loss to New Jersey after sitting for almost two weeks, so Gulutzan said it was important to get DeSmith back on a more regular rotation.

“We talked about getting him in quicker, not so long between starts, and I thought he responded real well,” Gulutzan said. “He gave us a chance.”

That’s important for a team that sits 26th in scoring and second in goals against.

“Today, we played a pretty good 60,” Rantanen said. “Our forecheck was good. We were turning pucks over, especially in the second period. Our D was doing a good job joining the rush and extending the O zone time, so that was good.”

Now they get a four-game homestand to try to put that game on the ice with consistency. Each of San Jose, Winnipeg, Buffalo and Florida are in the bottom half of the league in goals per game scoring, so this could be a chance to make a statement.

“We’ll take a look and see how we can get better,” Myers said. “There were a lot of good things, a lot of good to take from it.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.