A Huge Comeback
By Dave Weissman,  Columbus Wired (2/05/03)

This tie feels like a win. The Columbus Blue Jackets  showed grit and guts by overcoming a 4-1 deficit to tie the Vancouver Canucks 4-4 with late game heroics while extending their home point streak and increasing their season point total to 48.

Columbus scored three unanswered goals, including the game tying, short-handed goal by defenseman Darren Van Impe to tie the score 4-4 in the third period and to earn a point against the division leading Vancouver Canucks.

“We played to win and that’s what was exciting,” Blue Jackets President/GM/Interim head coach Doug MacLean said. “Even in overtime we played to win.”

It looked early as the Jackets would fold up their tents and go home, spotting the Canucks a 4-1 lead midway into the contest.

Vancouver got things started midway through the first period as Trent Klatt scored his tenth goal of the season. His shot deflected off of Jackets defenseman Jamie Allison’s foot and goaltender Marc Denis had no chance for the stop.

With 2:13 left in the period Canuck goaltender Peter Skudra made a crucial mistake. He mishandled the puck as he went behind the net. Andrew Cassels jumped up, stole the puck and chipped it to David Vyborny, who lit the lamp to tie the score 1-1. “A little confusion with their goalie. David made a call for it and it just worked out,” said Cassels. “That was a big goal for us to get us back in the game.”

The second period looked as if it was going to be ‘All Canucks, All The Time’. They would tally three goals in the period from Bertuzzi, Salo and Linden to command a 4-1 lead halfway through the period.

But, unlike last year and the early part of this year, the Jackets would not fall back on their heels, instead playing a game of grit and determination.

Tyler Wright would begin the momentum swing with less that two minutes remaining in the second period. As a Vancouver defender was holding up Rick Nash, Wright grabbed the drifting puck making a move to the goal and stuffing it under Skudra’s pads for his 15th goal of the year.

Less than a minute later, Ray Whitney’s slap shot was deflected by Mike Sillinger past Skudra to give the Jackets two unanswered goals heading into the intermission with the Jackets only down one goal, 4-3.

“We had a pretty good period except for the last minute,” said Canucks center Trevor Linden.

Things would get tense late in the 3rd period. With five minutes left, Jackets defenseman Scott LaChance was called for a 4:00 high-sticking penalty. But this season, Columbus is very strong on the penalty kill and most importantly in this case, short-handed goals, now tied in the NHL lead (10) with Detroit.

David Vyborny gathered the puck and passed up to a racing Sean Pronger. Pronger went hard to net, but lost control of the puck outside the crease. Fortunately, defenseman Darren Van Impe was there to pick it up at the face off dot and slam it home for his first Blue Jacket goal, tying the score 4-4 and bringing the 17,106 fans in attendance to their feet. Van Impe, earning his first goal since March 2002, was signed by Columbus as a free agent last month.

"I just read the play, Pronger going to the net and no one picked me up," said Van Impe. "I went down and was fortunate the puck came right to me, and I had an empty net."

“It was amazing really; to get a four-minute penalty against you with 5:05 left and you score a short-handed goal,” said MacLean. “That’s character and that was a character builder for us.”

Vancouver was obviously disheartened by the loss.

"Just stupid mistakes," said Todd Bertuzzi. "You have a 4-1 game and you should be able to close that out. We didn't. We better learn the lesson hard now or we are going to pay the price later on. It's unacceptable to come to a halt. We have to continue playing."

Columbus would garner a few great scoring chances in OT, but could not capitalize. Vancouver would get 3 shots in OT, including when Denis stoned Marcus Handlund with two minutes remaining for probably his most important save of the night. Denis would stop the shot in his chest and grab the puck in mid air for the save.

"We made some mistakes there at the end of the period and turned the puck over,” said Vancouver coach Marc Crawford. "We let them back in the game. Give them credit for coming back."

Columbus ended a successful four game home stand earning a total of six points against the Islanders, Avalanche, Preditors and tonight’s tie against the Canucks.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, that’s one of the best teams in the NHL,” commented MacLean. “It was a hard fought point and I am really proud of the guys.”

They now take the show on the road for a game against the hated Nashville Predators on Saturday, then back home against San Jose next Wednesday.