COLUMBUS, Ohio – The shootout has bailed the Dallas Stars out of some tight spots in the past.

On Monday, it merely accentuated a strong team effort.

Niklas Hagman scored as the 10th shooter in the tiebreaker, and Marty Turco stopped three of five shooters to give Dallas a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The win closed out the team's longest road trip of the season with a 4-2-0 record and pushed the Stars to 15-9-4 (34 points). Dallas remained in first place in the Pacific Division and maintained its four-point cushion over second-place San Jose.

"It was really good," Hagman said of the trip. "We had some ups and down. We lost a couple and didn't play well, and we got a reminder that we have to work hard to win games."

The Stars bounced back admirably from two rough games against New Jersey and Pittsburgh and closed the trip with two wins when they were probably running on fumes.

"I think you got two teams that are a little bit fatigued," coach Dave Tippett said of Monday's game, which was filled with turnovers, but also great scoring chances and great goaltending. "That's the kind of game we thought it was going to turn out to be right there."

Turco was outstanding with 25 saves, but he had to be to keep up with Columbus goalie Pasacal Leclaire, who was darn near phenomenal in stopping 33 shots. The Blue Jackets used that goaltending to protect an early 1-0 lead and appeared on their way to a tight victory. But Stars rookie Chris Conner fought through the checks of two defenders and scored on a third-period breakaway.

AP

Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco (right) stops a shot by the Blue Jackets' Gilbert Brule during the shootout.

That forced overtime and, eventually, the shootout, where the Stars are an NHL-best 23-6 since the tiebreaker was instituted in 2005. Turco allowed goals to two of the first four shooters, but then he shut down Gilbert Brule when it mattered most. The Stars needed goals from Mike Modano and Mike Ribeiro to keep the shootout going and then won it when Hagman made a funky, sweeping backhand that slipped under Leclaire's pads.

"Nobody knew what Haggy was going to do, including us," Tippett said.

Hagman said he duplicated a move he used to score on a short-handed breakaway earlier this season.

"I've tried it a couple of times in practice, and maybe that's something goalies don't expect," he said.

Hagman said he doesn't think he will be taking the place of shootout specialists Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen, who were both stopped Monday. In fact, he said a ton of Stars players could be used in the shootout ahead of him.

"We've got a whole bunch of guys who are good," he said. "The big factor has obviously been the goaltending. Marty has been really good, and Smitty [Mike Smith] has been really good. I would say the goalies have been a big factor, and then the confidence has been a big factor."

Either way, the shootout has been a big factor for the Stars the last few seasons.

"We've been able to win our fair share of them, and those are valuable points to have," Tippett said.