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Blue Jackets win fifth straight, finally beat Turco

Dec 13, 2006 - 4:11 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Marty Turco literally handed the Columbus Blue Jackets another victory.

David Vyborny and Dan Fritsche both scored off miscues by Turco as the Blue Jackets remained hot with a 3-1 triumph over the Dallas Stars.

Rookie Fredrik Norrena finished with 25 saves and Jason Chimera added an insurance tally for Columbus, which had been 0-9-1 all-time in Dallas. But seemingly nothing can stop the surging Blue Jackets at this point as they have won a season-high five straight games by an aggregate of 21-4.

"To come in and beat a quality opponent like Dallas is building our confidence," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We've been able to beat some pretty good teams. To win in Edmonton, win in Colorado, the franchise hadn't won there, and to win here, our confidence is growing and the guys are feeling a part of it."

Vyborny opened the scoring at 4:26 of the second period after Turco mishandled the puck in the left faceoff circle. Vyborny picked it up, skated to the net before Turco could recover and backhanded a shot over sliding defenseman Stephane Robidas.

Norrena protected the lead until blue-liner Philippe Boucher beat him for a power-play goal with 12:26 remaining in the third period, forging a 1-1 tie.

But the Stars' momentum was short-lived as the Blue Jackets tallied just 40 seconds later. Anson Carter put a simple shot on net that Turco could not glove, and Fritsche swooped in and buried the rebound for his sixth goal.

"I reached out to grab it, it went off the tip of my glove," Turco said. "That was kind of a depressing goal to give up."

Chimera scored on a breakaway with 6:20 left, deking Turco and roofing a wrister to seal the franchise-record fourth straight road win for Columbus.

Entering with a 9-0-0 record and a 1.99 goals-against average lifetime against the Blue Jackets, Turco made 20 saves as the Stars lost for just the second time in six games.

"Those mistakes happened and there's never a good time for errors like that," Turco said. "We were playing well and got some chances, but they needed me to make stops and I didn't. I usually make things look easy and tonight I made it look pretty difficult."

Stars coach Dave Tippett knows this certainly was an uncharacteristic performance by Turco.

"The first mistake Marty made, that's certainly not one you'd expect him to make," Tippett said. "It's just an unfortunate error on his part. But the one that you have to fault him is when you get it back to 1-1, turn the puck over in the neutral zone, give up a rebound and turn around and give it right back. That's all it takes to take the wind out of your sails a little bit."

Carter had two assists for the Blue Jackets, who had lost 10 of 11 prior to their current run. They are 6-3-0 under Hitchock, who directed the Stars to the Stanley Cup title in 1999.

"We are playing a lot better as a team," Carter said. "We are playing with a lot of poise out there. We're getting excellent goaltending from Freddy. The main thing is we are going as a team and developing a lot of confidence in one another, and we are not running around and doing each other's jobs."