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Hagman's shootout goal lifts Stars past Blue Jackets

Dec 4, 2007 - 5:37 AM By Dave Holstein PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) - It took some time, but Niklas Hagman made up for a past transgression and gave himself and the Dallas Stars an early birthday present.

Hagman scored in the fifth round of the shootout to power the Stars to a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.

Two days short of his 28th birthday, Hagman had the puck stolen from him by Rick Nash in the first period, which led to Blue Jackets' lone goal in regulation.

"It was a nice early present," Hagman said. "Hopefully, I will get something else nice. ... I tried that move a couple of times in practice. It's not something goalies expect, I saw it open and went five-hole."

"Nobody knew what 'Haggy' was going to do," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "It turned out all right. He called it on the bench and said it was going to be something backhand."

However, the Finnish star broke a deadlock in the fifth round of the shootout when he slid a wrist shot between the pads of goaltender Pascal Leclaire for the game-winner.

Goaltender Marty Turco recorded 25 saves to get his ninth win for the Stars, who concluded their season-high six-game road trip with a 4-2 record.

"Both goaltenders, I thought, were excellent," Tippett said. "That's the kind of game we thought it was going to turn out to be right there."

"It was a tough game, with both goalies playing well," Turco said. "Fortunately, we were able to get the goals we needed in the shootout to get the two points."

Columbus got on the board in the first period when Nikolai Zherdev scored his ninth goal of the season at 13:50. Nash stole the puck from Hagman in the Blue Jackets' zone and fed Zherdev, who redirected the puck past Turco.

Chris Conner leveled the game at 1-1 at 3:11 of the third as he fought off a pair of Stars defenders and slipped a backhander between Leclaire's pads.

"It was a great pass - right on my tape," Conner said. "I just kept going and was able to beat him five-hole."

Leclaire finished with 33 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three of their last four games.

"We got everything we could out of this group tonight," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We had nothing left at the end, we squeezed everything we could."