Joe Pavelski continued his hot start with two goals and two assists and Jamie Benn added a goal and two assists as the Dallas Stars cruised to a 6-3 victory over the host Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Dallas pulled away with a four-goal second period.
It was the second four-point game of the season for Pavelski. Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist and Denis Gurianov and Radek Faksa also scored goals for the Stars, who snapped an eight-game losing streak (0-6-2) to the Blue Jackets dating back to December 2015.
Dallas’ John Klingberg had two assists and Jake Oettinger finished with 23 saves to earn his second win in two career starts.
Mikhail Grigorenko had a goal and an assist and Seth Jones and Dean Kukan also scored goals for Columbus which, lost its second straight game despite the debut of Patrik Laine.
Laine, obtained along with center Jack Roslovic in a blockbuster trade with the Winnipeg Jets for Pierre-Luc Dubois on Jan. 23, failed to score on two shots and picked up a high-sticking penalty that led to a Stars power-play goal. He finished with a minus-2 rating in 20:54 of ice time.
Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo stopped 18 of 23 shots before being pulled in the second period for Elvis Merzlikins, who finished with nine saves.
Dallas grabbed a 1-0 lead at the 3:33 mark of the first period when Pavelski reached out and redirected Klingberg’s shot from the right point past Korpisalo’s glove hand.
The Stars, taking advantage of a four-minute high-sticking minor on Oliver Bjorkstrand, made it 2-0 early in the second period on a nearly identical goal. Pavelski deflected another Klingberg shot from the point inside the right post for his seventh goal of the season.
Columbus cut it to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Jones at 5:41 of the second, but Dallas answered with three goals in the span of 8:01 to make it 5-1 after two periods.
Benn got the first when he knocked in a Pavelski pass for his second goal of the season. Gurianov followed with a power-play goal when he whipped in a rebound of a Radulov shot from the right circle. Faksa finished the spurt with his first goal of the season, ramming in a rebound of Blake Comeau shot that hugged the goal line.
Grigorenko and Kukan scored less than four minutes apart early in the third period to cut the deficit to 5-3. The Blue Jackets pulled Merzlikins with three minutes remaining and Radulov sealed the win with an empty-net goal off a Pavelski feed with 1:41 left.
–Field Level Media