The Columbus Blue Jackets and Dallas Stars each came into Sunday’s game on winning streaks. It was the Stars who found a way to extend their winning streak to five.
Evgenii Dadonov scored twice in the third period to help lift the Stars to a 5-3 win on home ice against the resilient Blue Jackets. Their resiliency was tested throughout the game thanks to a weird sequence of different events throughout the game.
In the end, the Stars push was too much for the Blue Jackets to overcome.
Game Recap
Before we jump into the game recap, we’re going to recap the Blue Jackets’ injury situation from the night. They lost their top-two defensemen and a member of their top line for different parts of the game.
Dante Fabbro took an elbow up high and had to leave the game. Zach Werenski appeared to get chopped in the offensive zone. He left for a bit but came back in the third period. Kirill Marchenko took a puck in the face while sitting on the bench. He was unable to return. That doesn’t even count a high stick to Zach Aston-Reese or a puck in the face to Mikael Pyyhtia.
Despite it being an extremely painful game, the Blue Jackets held three separate leads. Cole Sillinger opened the scoring before Mason Marchment responded seven minutes later. It was 1-1 after the first.
The two teams then alternated goals twice in the second. Adam Fantilli scored his 16th of the season giving him five goals in his last six games. Logan Stankoven tied it just over a minute later.
Then Ivan Provorov was able to give the Blue Jackets a 3-2 lead from a shot in the slot. He was perhaps their best skater on both ends of the ice reinforcing his importance to the team given the injuries. Wyatt Johnston then on a power play made a nice deflection to make it 3-3.
The Blue Jackets escaped from that second period tied. The level of resiliency they are showing has been off the charts in recent games. However, it wasn’t enough to take down one of the Western Conference’s powerhouses.
Dadonov scored a goal that will be talked about for some time. Replay appeared to show the puck going in due to a high stick. After review, the officials confirmed the call on the ice of goal. Head coach Dean Evason said postgame to reporters in Dallas that it was a bad call. That became the game-winning goal.
Dadonov then added his second of the night to get to the final score of 5-3. He had just one goal in his last nine games before the two on Sunday.
The main concern for the Blue Jackets is the injury situation. The team has Monday off as they travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Tuesday night to end their road trip. The Stars will now hit the road for a Tuesday clash in Anaheim against the Ducks.
