Jake Oettinger made 25 saves and the Dallas Stars scored twice in the opening period before skating to a 3-1 win against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
Mikko Rantanen, Thomas Harley and Arttu Hyry scored in the finale of a six-game homestand for the Stars, who were coming off back-to-back one-sided losses on the heels of a five-game winning streak.
Damon Severson scored and Jet Greaves made 14 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost two in a row.
Greaves inadvertently cleared the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty at 1:43 of the first period and Dallas scored on the ensuing power play to take an early 1-0 lead.
Jason Robertson was at the top of the left face-off circle when he passed the puck to Wyatt Johnston down low. Johnston turned and made a backhand feed to Rantanen cutting to the opposite post and he redirected the puck into the net for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
Harley scored his first goal of the season with one second left in the opening period, appearing to surprise Greaves with a one-timer from above the left circle off the wall after the puck was rimmed around the boards, stretching the lead to 2-0.
The Stars did not get a shot on goal in the second until nearly halfway through the period, but Oettinger kept the Blue Jackets locked down by making nine saves in the middle frame.
After the Blue Jackets had a goal by Valeri Nichushkin taken off the boards after an offside review at 2:23 of the third period, Columbus prevented the Oettinger’s fourth shutout of the season when Severson scored off a feed from Zach Werenski to cut it to 2-1 at 6:21.
Hyry scored into an empty net with one second left to make it 3-1.
Ivan Provorov made his season debut for the Blue Jackets and the defenseman played 19:31.
He sustained a lower-body injury during the preseason and missed the first 11 games after not missing a game due to injury in his first 10 seasons in the NHL.
