“Our guys are competing their asses off and trying to do all the right things regardless of the score, regardless of the adversity and regardless of the calls or non-calls,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said.
The Blue Jackets were furious over the Stars’ first goal of the third period, scored on a redirection by forward Evgenii Dadonov at 11:22 to make it 4-3. Dadonov elevated his stick to deflect a wrist shot by Thomas Harley, sending the puck under the right arm of Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.
After a replay, the goal was allowed to stand.
“We got a really, really terrible break,” Evason said. “We’re hanging on with a lot of injuries and a lot of stuff going just to get a tie and maybe get it to overtime.”
Then he corrected himself.
“It’s not a bad break, it’s a bad call,” Evason said. “It’s a high stick. I just don’t understand it. At least from our angle, it’s 100 percent a high stick. We’ll have to wait and hear back (from the NHL) about what angles they don’t have that maybe we do. But it’s unfortunate that we grind and we battle and we compete, and we lose a hockey game on something like that.”
“It looked like a high stick from our end,” Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov said. “From (the Stars’) reaction, it even looked like they thought it was a high stick. But we’re not the ones making the call.”
Evason took exception to at least two other calls / non-calls.
Just before the Stars’ first goal, replays showed Dallas forward Mason Marchment landing an elbow flush to Fabbro’s face as they battled for the puck. The hit left Fabbro dazed, and he slammed his stick on the ice in frustration seconds later when Marchment (of all people) scored.
Fabbro finished the first period, but did not return to the game. Evason indicated the Fabbro is already out for Tuesday’s game in Buffalo and perhaps beyond.
“He gets elbowed square in the face and they score,” Evason said. “That’s a tough injury to … I don’t know what to say. There were a couple of things that happened in this game that are really frustrating, but our guys kept pushing and grinding.”
The other beef was on the goal that allowed the Stars to tie the score at two at 6:03 of the second period.
Harley pressured Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson in his own zone, spinning Johnson around and turning the puck over for a two-on-one that Dallas’ Logan Stankoven finished. Johnson was just getting up off the ice when Stankoven scored.
Johnson and Merzlikins glared at officials after the goal.
Evason laughed when asked about the non-call.
“I don’t think you should be able to grab a guy’s hip and spin him around so he falls down and they get a two-on-one,” Evason said. “I don’t think that should happen, either.”