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Richards, Eriksson lift Stars past Blue Jackets

Dec 19, 2008 - 5:43 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Brad Richards and Mike Ribeiro scored in the shootout and Marty Turco thwarted both attempts as the Dallas Stars outlasted the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-5, on Thursday.

After recording a two-goal performance one day earlier, Loui Eriksson netted his first career hat trick for Dallas, which improved to 3-1-0 in its last four games.

"It was a nice win. That was my first hat trick, it was awesome," Eriksson said. "It's a great feeling. It was a great way to win, too. Picking up the late win, it was great."

Richards had a goal and three assists, Matt Niskanen also tallied and Turco finished with 23 saves - and stopped Kristian Huselius and captain Rick Nash in the bonus format.

"It's been tough going offensively. It's nice to be rewarded and help the team out," Richards said.

"Sometimes you have an off-game, you're snakebit. No excuses. It was nice to have something to show for it."

Joel Lundqvist, Mike Ribeiro and rookie Fabian Brunnstrom notched two assists apiece for the Stars.

Nash had two goals and an assist and R.J. Umberger recorded a goal and two assists for Columbus, which nearly won the contest just 13 seconds into overtime after Manny Malhotra apparently scored.

That tally was disallowed after the officials ruled that Malhotra used a distinct kicking motion on the play.

"It's a frustrating way to lose a point," Malhotra said. "I'm a half-decent soccer player and I couldn't have tried to kick that in. I was basically trying to stop my motion and (Stars defenseman Darryl) Sydor pushed me into the net. I had no intention of kicking it."

"We won the hockey game, I don't care what score they put up - we won the hockey game," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It was a good goal, that player did not try and kick it in."

Rookie Derick Brassard and Huselius also tallied for the Blue Jackets.

"We showed a lot of character to get a point," Huselius said. "It was close all the way to the end."

Eriksson scored his team's first three goals, capped by his tally 80 seconds into the second period to cap the hat trick. The Swede extended his career-high to 17 goals with the outburst.

"I had him penciled in for 20 goals (before the season started) because we needed it with the (players) we lost, we needed somebody to elevate," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said.

Brassard gave Columbus a 2-1 advantage after weaving through the defense and tucking it past Turco for his 10th goal of the season. With the point, Brassard moves past Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks for the most points by a rookie this season.

The sixth overall pick of the 2006 draft, Brassard left the contest in the first period with an upper body injury sustained in a fight with Dallas' James Neal.

Nash opened the scoring 94 seconds into the first period and capped the scoring in regulation with 2:46 remaining in the third period to level the contest at 5-5.