Stars' Turco suffers rare loss to Blue Jackets

DALLAS (Reuters) - Dallas netminder Marty Turco suffered a rare loss to Columbus on Thursday as the Blue Jackets beat the Stars 4-1.

In a fight-filled first period, Rick Nash opened the scoring with a power-play goal before Kristian Huselius made it 2-0 for the Blue Jackets with a shorthanded marker.

Huselius scored again at 10:23 in the second and Raffi Torres made it 4-0 20 seconds later to give Columbus their third win in a row.

Mike Modano scored for Dallas later in the second period.

"I really liked our competitiveness all game," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock told reporters. "We haven't had a lot of success here.

"We responded well to a physical start to the game and that was a very good sign for us too."

Several fights broke out in the first period, which featured 52 minutes in penalties.

"It set the tone for the night," Blue Jackets goalie Steve Mason said. "When a game starts like that you know it's going to be a tough game."

His Dallas counterpart has usually been on the winning side against the Blue Jackets. Turco has a lifetime 14-2-2 record against Columbus.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in Toronto; Editing by Peter Rutherford)