Red Wings Frustrate Jackets Again, 3-2
By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired (3/3/03)

It is only fitting that on a night dominated by the spectre of Anna Kournikova, the Blue Jackets looked really good but lost. Despite outshooting the heavily-armed Detroit Red Wings, having a crack at eight power play chances, and even getting a goal from the heretofore scoreless Rostislav Klesla, the Jackets lost another frustrating game to the defending champs. A pair of Brendan Shanahan goals, including the game-winner on a third period power play, propelled Detroit to a 3-2 win before a sellout crowd at Nationwide Arena.

Earlier in the day, word had leaked that Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov has admitted in an interview that he was briefly married to international tennis skirt supermodel Anna Kournikova. This naturally caused a media circus. Reporters from around the globe waited through a hockey game in the hope that Sergei would reveal, in great detail, what Anna looks like naked. Instead, he was scratched from the game and did not speak to reporters, meaning we’re all still stuck with laughable internet forgeries and whatever our own imaginations can concoct. We could have used your input, comrade.

So with that non-story event out of the way, on to the sideshow that was hockey...

Sometimes the theme of a hockey game announces itself early in the game with great fanfare, yet sometimes the theme reveals itself such a way that the foreshadowing goes undetected. Such was the case tonight. The game was barely a minute old when Pavel Datsyuk elbowed Jaroslav Spacek. When no call was made, Spacek retaliated with a high stick on his assailant. Up came the referee’s arm. Unbeknownst to all, the night’s theme was set.

The Jackets killed off that Red Wings power play...sorta. One second after the penalty box butler opened the door for Spacek, Brendan Shanahan ripped a one-timer off a cross-crease feed from Datsyuk to make it 1-0 Detroit. With the goal, the many Red Wings fans in attendance erupted. It was a disgusting spectacle, this contemptible throng of Hockey Town hosers that was as red as a baboon’s butt, but twice as malodorous.

Thankfully, the Jackets power play would silence them. Maxim Kuznetsov received a four minute penalty for failing to wear a blindfold while using his stick to whack at the Norwegian pinata that is Espen Knutsen’s head. On the resulting power play, Ray Whitney unleashed a one-time slapper off of a Sanderson feed to tie the score. It was the captain’s fifth goal in the last three games.

The goal came in the first penalty of Kuznetsov’s double minor. Shortly after the second power play ended, Mathieu Dandeault was whistled for interference. Eighty-one seconds after that penalty expired, Jesse Wallin was called for tripping. Sixty-eight seconds after THAT penalty expired, Boyd Devereaux was thrown in the box for slashing. The Jackets were only able to cash in for one goal in five first-period power play chances, but the good news was that it allowed Columbus to control the period. When the horn sounded, the Jackets held a 13-2 advantage in shots on goal. The two measly shots for Detroit tied a CBJ record for fewest shots allowed in the first period.

The dominance would not carry over into period two. Brett Hull put the Wings on top just 2:02 into the middle frame, blasting a one-timer from the slot, despite there being two defenders and a goalie in the immediate vicinity. Apparently Hull has had some previous experience with doing this of this sort of thing.

The Jackets would again come back to tie, this time on Rostislav Klesla’s first goal in 354 days. For a man who hadn’t scored in a while, Klesla sure scored a dandy. From behind the net, he shot a puck that acted as a boomerang, looping in front of the goal before amazingly reversing its path and sneaking inside the far post. That shot went 270 degrees easy. Pure magic.

“I tried to pass it up front to Mike Sillinger,” explained Klesla, “but it hit someone’s skate and went in.” Okay, so it technically hit off of Devereaux’s right skate and then went across the crease, where goalie Manny Legace technically shepherded it into his own goal with his right skate. But still, a goal is a goal is a goal. No need to quibble over the details. In the words of Klesla himself, “I’ll take it.”

A minute or so later, the game’s thematic undercurrent would resurface. The Wings, laboring under the assumption that the Columbus players have candy in their skulls, got whistled for yet another high stick. This time, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre took umbrage and retaliated with some rough stuff of his own. The power play opportunity was negated. The Jackets would get two more power plays in the period, thanks to a pair of Kuznetsov tripping penalties, but no goals resulted. Maybe the third one would have been the charm.

In the third period, the Jackets would ultimately pay the price for their retaliating ways. Almost nine minutes in, Darren McCarty took a two-handed shot to Spacek’s face, obliterating the defenseman in the process. Spacek climbed back onto his feet and raced into the corner, where he and Grand-Pierre brutally crumpled McCarty face first into the boards. Spatcho was ordered to take a two-minute chill pill.

“ I thought it was a dirty play on Spacek,” said Columbus President/GM/coach/organist Doug MacLean. “ It was a hit to the head, but he didn’t get the call even though the referee was right there watching it. But still, you can’t retaliate. They’re too good a team to retaliate against.”

This third, and final, retaliation penalty by the Jackets would be their undoing. Shanahan collected a pass from Jason Woolley in the left circle. When the time was right, he whipped a wrister that went through the legs of Grand-Pierre and then through the legs of Jackets goalie Marc Denis. A great croquet player, this Shanahan fella.

“Brendan Shanahan has made a living by taking wrist shots five-hole on the power play,” lamented Denis.

Once the Wings got their third period lead, backup goalie Manny Legace was determined not to let go of it. Watching Legace make save after save, it was enough to make one wonder if it was really high-priced free agent Curtis Joseph underneath the mask. Glove save on Spacek...pad save on Klesla, followed by fifty-something whacks at the rebound by Andrew Cassels...save on Allison...save on a redirection of a Cassels shot, then sits on Sanderson’s rebound....fantastic save on Allison again....on and on it went.

“I thought we played very well in the third,” said MacLean. “We had some great chances, but Legace made five or six great saves.”

Afterward, the Columbus locker room was filled with angst at the thought that they let one get away. A sampling...

“It’s frustrating because we could have beaten them. They played last night and you could tell they were tired in the third. We certainly had our chances to score tonight.” – Mike Sillinger.

“I strongly believe we played well enough to win tonight.” —Marc Denis.

“It was a hard-fought hockey game and we deserved it as much as they did, that’s for sure.” —Doug MacLean.

But in the end, three dumb retaliation penalties did them in by giving Detroit 1.99 goals and negating a power play opportunity of their own, leaving the team to lament the notion that their fate might have turned had their other cheek done likewise.