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Smith lifts Stars over Blue Jackets

Jan 20, 2008 - 2:09 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Mike Smith had to earn his first victory of the calendar year.

Smith recorded 29 saves as the Dallas Stars defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1, on Saturday despite registering only 14 shots.

Spelling Marty Turco, Smith snapped a personal three-game losing streak to record his first win since beating the St. Louis Blues, 5-4, in overtime on December 29.

"It's been a long time since I got into the win column, so I was just battling and trying to make saves," Smith said. "It goes back to that old saying that goaltending wins championships."

"He kept us in the game," Stars center Mike Ribeiro said. "Winning was important. The way we won was unusual."

Dallas, which continued its domination of Columbus, made the most of its few opportunities, scoring on two of its six shots through 40 minutes.

"I thought we outplayed them," Blue Jackets All-Star Rick Nash said. "We didn't close. We have to learn to close."

Captain Brenden Morrow opened the scoring with 7:17 left in the first period and Stu Barnes made it 2-0 with 9:48 remaining in the second. Dallas improved to 21-3-3 all-time against Columbus.

"It wasn't the best game for us today, but the bottom line is that we got two points," Morrow said. "We have a lot of guys right now with some spark, and that is really bringing us some energy."

Playing without injured All-Star defenseman Sergei Zubov, the Stars executed a conservative game plan, especially after taking the lead. They managed four shots in the opening period and just two in the second.

Stars coach Dave Tippett said that Zubov will undergo an MRI on Monday and miss the team's game on Sunday against Anaheim. Zubov sat out Saturday's contest after injuring his foot in Thursday's victory at San Jose.

Saturday's game was the first of a four-game homestand for the Stars, who went 2-2-1 on a five-game road trip.

"You can't imagine how hard it is (playing at home after a road trip)," Tippett said. "Give our players a lot of credit. We were efficient."

After the Stars were held without a shot for the first 10 minutes, Morrow beat goaltender Fredrik Norrena from the bottom of the right faceoff circle after taking a pass from behind the net by Ribeiro.

"I thought maybe we slept in a little or maybe didn't get enough eggs in us," Smith said of the Stars' slow start.

Barnes doubled the lead, snapping a shot from the left circle into the top left corner of the net.

Nikolai Zherdev's power-play goal with 12 seconds left in the middle period ended Smith's shutout bid. Steve Ott restored Dallas' two-goal margin 8:54 into the third.

"We had them buried after two periods and didn't take advantage," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We have to take responsibility because we didn't bury the chances we had."

The Stars took a lead into the third period despite being outshot, 20-6, over the first 40 minutes.