Columbus ends home season on sour note with 5-5 tie.
Bad call costs Jackets win over Detroit.
By Dave Weissman Columbus Wired (4/4/03)

The Blue Jackets ended their 2002-2003 home season with an excruciatingly painful 5-5 tie against the defending champion Detroit Red Wings. Columbus played an up and down game; up 3-0, 3-2, 4-3, 5-3, 5-4. It ended in controversy, as Columbus should have had a 6-4 win but was left holding a 5-5 tie.

Instead of the victory, due to a quick whistle by the referee that cost the Jackets an open net goal by David Vyborny in the waning moments, Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk scored with :12 seconds left to tie the contest 5-5 and leave the 18,136 fans in attendance, the Blue Jacket players and even president, general manager and interim coach Doug MacLean breathless and angry.

“You guys saw what happened; Brendan Shanahan gets hit with a deflected puck and they blow the whistle. That’s not a call,” said MacLean. “You blow the whistle when it’s a serious penalty or a serious injury. Brendan didn’t dive, but you don’t blow the whistle in that situation.”

"I was coming forward on the play, trying to jump the guy before he could get it," Shanahan said. "I think it hit his stick and it (the puck) came up and got me in the nose and mouth. It knocked some teeth loose and I went down.“

This game was as important to Detroit as it was Columbus. Instead of resting their premier players, the Red Wings came out with full force. They were one point behind Dallas for the best record in the Western Conference with two games remaining. They desperately wanted the win tonight and at least a tie in their last game on Sunday to clinch home-ice advantage through the western conference playoffs.

The Jackets got things started on a high note with goals from David Vyborny, Andrew Cassels and Tyler Wright to steam ahead 3-0.

Just 2:39 into the contest David Vyborny scored his 19th goal of the season. He was fed perfectly by Geoff Sanderson (32) and assisted by Andrew Cassels (47).

Halfway through the period (9:26) Cassels would notch another point to his fantastic season. He stole the puck from a Detroit defender, raced up ice, split the defenders and lit the lamp to make it 2-0 and earn his 20th goal of the season.

In the second period, the full house in Nationwide was rewarded one final time this season with Chile from Wendy’s thanks to Tyler Wright’s 19th goal of the season. Rookie phenom Rick Nash fought hard for the puck on a forecheck behind the Detroit goal; flipped it out to Vyborny who found the open Tyler Wright in front of the net. Tyler slammed it home to put the Jackets up 3-0.

Detroit showed why they are the defending champs, scoring two second period goals in a matter of just 99 seconds. On the first one, Darren McCarthy would win the face-off over Jackets’ David Ling (Ling was taking the face-off because Sean Pronger was called out of the face-off circle) quickly pass up to a flying Kris Draper who found the five-hole past Denis to put the Red Wings on the board 3-1.

Marc Denis, who broke the record for most minutes played in a season (4,443, Martin Brodour, NJ) during the 3rd period, stopped many shots pointblank and kept Detroit off the scoreboard until Draper’s goal. He ended the night stopping 30 of 35 shots.

At 8:35, Blue Jackets defender Duvie Westcott was called for tripping on a very light touch. The full house in Nationwide disagreed with the call and let the officials know their displeasure. Detroit would set up a jailbreak in front of the goal twelve seconds later. Sergei Federov took the shot and followed it into the goal area. Tomas Holmstrom and Brendan Shanahan were already there, surrounding Denis, waiting to jump on the rebounded puck. Shanahan whacked at the puck while Denis had no chance to stop the shot and just that quickly it was 3-2.

Columbus would bend, but not break…at least yet. The ‘Wizard’ Ray Whitney scored his 24th goal of the season, unassisted, four minutes later to keep the two-goal cushion… temporarily.

The third period was up and down for the Jackets. Just watch the bouncing puck…

Datsyuk found Brett Hull driving to the net. Hull gave a hard wrister that banked off of the left post and into the net. Boom…4-3. It was Hull’s 37th goal of the season.

Sixty-one seconds later, Columbus would once again try to keep the two goal cushion. Duvie Westcott took a slapshot from the blue line. Nash grabbed the rebound in front of the net, did not quit, drove around the net and slid the puck across the crease where Lasse Pirjeta was waiting to slip it past Legace and make it 5-3.

That’s where the fun ended. Columbus would suffer from back-to-back penalties which kept things alive and well for the Red Wings. At 6:04, just as the first penalty was ending for David Ling (serving for too many men on the ice bench penalty) the Jackets were called for their sixth minor penalty of the game. Defenseman Luke Richardson was put in the sin bin for two minutes for cross checking.

With 4:01 remaining, just as Richardson’s penalty was ending, Kirk Maltby picked up the loose puck, splitting the defense as he glided through all four defenders on the way to the net. Denis was left sprawling and flopping wondering where his defense went. High wrist shot under the goal post to get the Red Wings within one goal with just moments remaining in regulation play and give Maltby his 13th goal of the season.

It looked as the Jackets were going to score and put the game away with one minute left. But alas, as we have questioned the officiating throughout the season, that was not the case. A Columbus defender chipped and banked off the glass, ricocheting off Detroit forward Steve Yzerman’s helmet and face. The trailing referee blew the play dead just as the puck was leaving Vyborny’s stick and heading toward the open net.


"Obviously, there was a very questionable whistle," Denis said. “It blows my mind. Everybody knew that he wasn't going to leave the ice on a stretcher."

That seemed to take the wind out of the Jackets sails and swing momentum from the Columbus bench over to Detroit’s as Datsyuk notched his 12th goal of the year with just 12 seconds remaining to tie the game 5-5. Brett Hull (39) and Federov (47) assisted.

“It was blown down because the net was empty, that’s why,” MacLean argued. “That’s not the call and that’s not right. But it was a hard fought game and we deserved a better fate than that.”

All that was left was for the fans to ponder is next season and that bad call.