Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Mike Smith made 29 saves, as the Dallas Stars, who were thoroughly outplayed, escaped with a 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at American Airlines Center.

Brenden Morrow, Stu Barnes and Steve Ott scored for the Stars, who have won two straight following a three-game losing streak.

"It wasn't the best game for us today, but the bottom line is that we got the two points," said Morrow. "We have a lot of guys right now with some spark and that is really bringing us some energy. (Mike) Smith was really good for us today and made some good saves, standing tall and getting us the win."

Nikolai Zherdev notched the lone goal, and Fredrik Norrena stopped 11-of-14 shots for Columbus, which was riding its second four-game winning streak of the season.

"These are two points we lost that we should have won but Dallas deserves a lot of credit," said Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock.

Columbus outshot the Stars 6-4 in the first 20 minutes, but found itself trailing 1-0 courtesy of Morrow's 17th goal of the season.

Antti Miettinen sent out a backhand pass from behind the Columbus net that Morrow one-timed from the right circle high over Norrena with 7:17 remaining.

The Stars continued their opportunistic play, scoring on their first shot of the middle frame. Krys Barch dished to a wide-open Barnes in front of Norrena. Barnes then pulled the puck to the forehand and slipped it past the goaltender's left pad with 9:48 to play. Columbus had eight shots before Barnes' tally.

Columbus finally solved Smith with a power-play goal in the dying seconds of the period. Jason Chimera made a backhand pass from the high slot to Zherdev at the left circle. Zherdev took a couple of strides towards the goal and snapped a wrister past Smith's blocker. Zherdev's marker was his 20th of the season, doubling his total from last season.

The Blue Jackets finished the period with 14 shots, while the Stars registered only two, but still held a 2-1 lead.

Dallas grabbed a 3-1 lead at the 8:54 mark of the third. Coming into the offensive zone on a 4-on-2 break, Jeff Halpern pulled up at the right circle and sent a cross-ice feed to the left circle that Ott buried in the back of the net.

Around the midway point of the frame, Dallas defenseman Matt Niskanen made a skate save, stopping a sliding puck as it neared the empty net. A video review provided no conclusive evidence of the puck crossing the goal line and the Stars maintained their two-goal advantage.

In the final minute, Norrena raced to the bench for an extra attacker, but the Blue Jackets were unable to generate any scoring chances.