Dallas netminder Marty Turco suffered a rare loss to Columbus on Thursday as the Blue Jackets beat the Stars 4-1.
In a fight-filled first period, Rick Nash opened the scoring with a power-play goal before Kristian Huselius made it 2-0 for the Blue Jackets with a shorthanded marker.
Huselius scored again at 10:23 in the second and Raffi Torres made it 4-0 20 seconds later to give Columbus their third win in a row.
Mike Modano scored for Dallas later in the second period.
“I really liked our competitiveness all game,” Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock told reporters. “We haven’t had a lot of success here. We responded well to a physical start to the game and that was a very good sign for us too.”
Several fights broke out in the first period, which featured 52 minutes in penalties.
“It set the tone for the night,” Blue Jackets goalie Steve Mason said. “When a game starts like that you know it’s going to be a tough game.”
His Dallas counterpart has usually been on the winning side against the Blue Jackets. Turco has a lifetime 14-2-2 record against Columbus.
BLACKHAWKS 7, FLAMES 1
Kris Versteeg scored two power-play goals in Chicago’s five-goal second period to help the Blackhawks rout the Calgary Flames on Thursday in a rematch of last season’s NHL first-round playoff series.
The Blackhawks beat the Flames in six games last season in the playoffs, ending the series with a 4-1 victory in Calgary.
In their first meeting of the season, the Blackhawks overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat the Flames 6-5 in overtime.
Troy Brouwer and Patrick Kane added power-play goals for the Blackhawks. Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Ben Eager also scored to help Chicago open a six-game trip with its fifth straight victory.
Olli Jokinen found the net for Calgary.
SENATORS 6, PENGUINS 2
In Ottawa, Chris Phillips scored twice in his 800th regular-season game, leading the Ottawa over Pittsburgh.
Phillips, who entered with one goal in his past 18 games, scored goals 2:03 apart in the third to put Ottawa up 5-1.
Ottawa goaltender Pascale Leclaire made 25 saves and Milan Michalek got his 100th career goal. Matt Carkner, Chris Kelly and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored for the Senators.
Jordan Staal scored early in the first, and Evgeni Malkin had a power-play goal late in the third for Pittsburgh, which gave up six straight goals after taking a 1-0 lead.
PREDATORS 3, DEVILS 2, OT
In Nashville, Tennessee, Mike Santorelli and Martin Erat scored shootout goals to lift Nashville over New Jersey.
Jason Arnott had two goals in regulation for the Predators.
Zach Parise scored twice for New Jersey.
BRUINS 4, THRASHERS 3, SO
In Atlanta, Patrice Bergeron scored the only goal of the shootout to snap Boston’s three-game losing streak and end Atlanta’s winning streak at four.
The Thrashers picked up a point when Maxim Afinogenov scored with 41 seconds remaining in regulation.
Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped all three Atlanta skaters in the shootout, while Bergeron scored on the Bruins’ opening attempt.
Michael Ryder scored twice, and Marco Sturm had a regulation goal for Boston.
Kovalchuk and Nik Antropov also scored for Atlanta.
BLUES 3, COYOTES 2, OT
In St Louis, Erik Johnson scored on an end-to-end rush 17 seconds into overtime to give St Louis its first victory in five overtime games this season, edging Phoenix.
DUCKS 4, LIGHTNING 3, OT
RSS