Blue Jackets Tame Lame Wild, 2-0
By Steve Sirk

In a largely irrelevant game at Nationwide Arena, the Columbus Blue Jackets answered the call of the wild. Their opponents from Minnesota answered the call of the mild. And so it was that the penalty-prone Jackets disposed of the disinterested and sluggish Minnesota Wild, 2-0, in a game that offered the deserving home fans a victory, a shutout, a Rick Nash goal…and not much else to speak of.

“The entertainment factor might not have been the greatest,” said Jackets goaltender Marc Denis, “but if you call it watching paint dry or watching grass grow, I really don’t care. I want to win.”

The paint dried, the Jackets killed a few penalties, the grass grew, and then things got eventful 6:01 into the second period when Jackets hard man Jody Shelley was ejected from the game for blasting Stephane Veilleux in the face in a one-man fight. Veilleux was in a scrum with David Ling when Shelley came in, dropped the gloves and popped him. Veilleux dropped to the ice, never having taken his gloves off. Since Veilleux never fought back, Shelley picked up the only fighting penalty (in addition to a roughing call, a misconduct, and a game-misconduct), giving the Wild a full five-minute power play.

This five-minute advantage would clearly be the turning point in the game. Someone should have told the Wild. The Jackets kept the Minnesota power play bottled up, and then the Wild generously forfeited two minutes of the advantage thanks to a stupid obstruction-hooking call on Rickard Wallin. At that point, one could almost sense that there was a zero percent chance of Minnesota winning the game.

The Jackets took the lead with just under eight minutes to play in the period, when rookie defenseman Aaron Johnson roofed the rebound from an Andrew Cassels shot. Johnson pinched in and flipped the puck into the top netting, maybe an inch inside the crossbar.

“I was just trying to get it up,” said Johnson. “I knew (the goalie) was down on the ground looking for the rebound, so I just tried to get it as high as I could.”

Nash would clinch the game, for all intents and purposes, on a fluke goal with 1.1 seconds remaining in the period. As time ticked down, Nash threw a no-angle shot toward the net from the side wall. This is the equivalent of a full-court desperation heave in basketball. Wild goalie Dwayne Roloson reached out for the puck, which appeared as though it was going to hit the outside of the net. Yet Roloson reached around the net for the puck, which bounced off his glove, out toward the front of the goal, then caromed off his body and trickled across the goal line. The clock showed 0:00, but upon review, it was determined the puck crossed the line with 1.1 seconds to play.

“It was a really lucky one,” said Nash. “I knew time was counting down so I threw it on net and hoped for the best. I’ll take them any way I can get them.”

The goal tied Nash with Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk for the NHL goal scoring lead. Nash’s pursuit of the Rocket Richard Trophy has quickly become a focal point of fans, media and teammates.

“I wish Nasher could score three or four a night from here on out,” said Denis. “We’re focused on that a little bit.”

“It’s one of those things where I’m here, so I might as well go for it,” said Nash. “When you’re up 2-0, the guys really start trying to get you the puck. It means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to them too if I win that award. But that said, I think it means a lot more to the fans than it does in this room. We’re more worried about getting two points.”

The Nash’s fluke nailing the coffin shut, the Jackets cruised through the third for the 2-0 victory. There were some quirky numbers. The Wild had 15 minutes of power play time while going 0-for-8 with the man advantage. Not only that, Columbus received only two power plays, meaning Minnesota NETTED eleven minutes of power play time! And despite this enormous disparity, the Wild managed a meager 20 shots on goal.

“Our penalty kill was the difference in the game,” said Jackets coach Gerard Gallant. “(Minnesota) had 15 minutes of power play time and I don’t think they had any really good scoring chances out of it. We did a great job.”

In fact, the Jackets launched four short-handed counterattacks that were more dangerous than any threat posed by the Wild’s power play.

“PK was huge,” agreed Tyler Wright. “We had a lot of short-handed chances, but the main goal is to try to contain them and then take your chances when the opportunity comes.”

The win snapped the Jackets’ three-game home losing streak. The players were happy to win one for the fans, and they understandably shrugged off Minnesota’s zombie-like performance.

“We’ve been accused of going through the motions at times this year, so if we catch another team like that, so be it,” said Denis. “We’ll take the win.”