Third Jersey, First-Rate Effort: Jackets Dump Canucks, 3-2
By Steve Sirk, Columbus Wired

It was billed as a historic day for the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the much-anticipated unveiling of the team’s new third jersey. With the excitement surrounding a new landmark off the ice, it was important for the team to respond with something “new and improved” on the ice as well. How about tenacious two-way play, coming up big in gut-check time, and following a sterling performance with yet another sterling performance? A new era indeed.

Two days after slapping the millionaire slackers from the Big Apple, the Blue Jackets dispatched of the skillful behemoths from British Columbia, defeating the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on the strength of a three-point night from newcomer Todd Marchant. Oh, and guts, guts and more guts.

After losing Tyler Wright and Duvie Westcott to injuries, the Jackets were forced to limit themselves to three lines and five defensemen, which is no easy task when sharing the ice with a physical and potent team like Vancouver.

“That was a gutsy, gutsy performance,” said Jackets head coach Doug MacLean. “We lost Tyler in the second shift, David Vyborny went down and battled back, and then we lost Duvie too. It was a battle. It was a solid, gutsy performance.”

Wright was lost after only 19 seconds of ice time, and the Jackets never really seemed to get it going. On Saturday, the Jackets blitzed the dazed Rangers with a 17 shot barrage in the opening period. Tonight, the Jackets mustered just six shots in the opening frame, with a crossbar from the stick of Jaroslav Spacek coming closest to giving the crowd something to cheer.

While the Jackets offense hibernated, including one of the most poorly executed power plays imaginable, the Canucks offense wasn’t exactly revving into high gear. They amassed a whopping seven shots, but one of them lit the lamp. At 12:18, just seconds after an Andrew Cassels penalty expired, Mattias Ohlund scored his first goal of the year to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead. Still (unofficially) on the power play for all intents and purposes, Ohlund took advantage of the open ice to creep up into the slot, where he received a deep pass from Daniel Sedin and fluttered a shot past Marc Denis’ stick side.

The second period was better for the Jackets, but momentum would swing decidedly in Columbus’ way after two key events. First, Rick Nash boomed hulking Canucks defender Ed Jovanovski into the boards behind the Vancouver net. The crowd ate it up.

“We’ve got great fans here,” said Nash. “It really helps to get them going by hitting a guy like that. It wasn’t a really big hit, but it was against the glass and it got the crowd going. I’m sure he gets hit like that ten times a game, but it got the fans into it and it made them loud.”

But the big momentum shifter occurred when Canucks goalie Dan Cloutier inexplicably picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the Blue Jackets bench during a TV timeout.

“I didn’t see it,” said Jackets captain Luke Richardson, “but someone chirped at him and I guess he’s a hothead and he came over just to acknowledge it and the referee gave him a penalty for going out of his way to come to our bench.”

The foolish penalty would prove costly as the Jackets capitalized on the ensuing power play. After a successful face-off in the offensive zone, Vyborny waltzed in from a poor angle on the left wing. Shooting with no target in sight, Vyborny still managed to hit the bullseye, improbably sneaking a shot past a bewildered Cloutier at the 11:17 mark.

“It’s always a bit of an incentive, to turn it around on the guy who took the penalty,” said Richardson, of making Cloutier pay for his crime. “Maybe it gets into his head a bit.”

The ramifications of his blunder probably didn’t have time to sink in. Just 1:26 after the goal, Cloutier found himself staring down a 3-on-1 break. Rookie (and Parma native) Dan Fritsche tapped the puck to Espen Knutsen, who was center man on the break. Knutsen then dished off to Fritsche on his right, and Fritsche’s low shot got under Cloutier but went well wide. Nevertheless, it was an electrifying moment from the 18-year old Ohioan.

But never mind electrifying. The crowd would explode just 13 seconds later when the Jackets took a 2-1 lead. After another face-off win in the offensive zone, Daryl Sydor skated up the left boards and whizzed the puck into the mix up front. The puck deflected off of Jody Shelley and fell right into the path of Marchant, who buried it. Wait a minute-- what the heck was a slugger like Shelley doing on the ice with the second-line center anyway?

“When you get short (due to the injuries), you’re scrambling with your lines,” said MacLean. “We were really playing with three lines for most of the game. Jody (Shelley) and Linger (David Ling) went out with Todd Marchant and got a big goal for us, which was great.”

At that point, Columbus started to dominate possession, but they escaped two near misses from Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver’s mammoth 97-point winger. At 14:53, Bertuzzi had a goal disallowed when the net was removed from the pegs just a fraction of a second before his shot beat Denis to the roof of the net. And at 17:15, Bertuzzi had an open look from the inside of the right circle and somehow managed to whistle it high and wide. He doesn’t miss many from there, folks.

The Jackets may have dodged some bullets to get out of the second period on top, but the lead would vanish just 48 ticks into the final period. The Canucks scored a beauty off of some precision passing. Brent Sopel was at the right point. He played a fast diagonal puck to Ohlund, who was down low on the left. Ohlund then sent a crisp pass across the crease to center Brendan Morrison, who tucked it in to tie the score.

But these new Jackets, in their new third jerseys, refused to fold. The game-winner would come at the 9:44 mark. Marchant, who was everywhere, collected an Andrej Nedorost pass down low on the right. Marchant curled back behind the goal and popped out the other side, where he dropped the puck to Richardson at the blue line. The captain smacked the puck toward the goal, where it bounced in off of the super-sophomore Nash, who was dominant around the net all night.

“Against a team like Vancouver, you’re not going to win with rushes,” Nash explained. “You’re going to win below the goal line. We had to grind it out. That’s how we scored most of our goals tonight. The last goal was great passing by Nedorost and Marchant, and then Luke Richardson shot it at the net. I just parked myself in front and lucky enough for me it tipped off my shin pad.”

Perhaps the fans are haunted by the Ghost of Jackets Past, where late leads are meant to be surrendered, but this new edition battled ‘til the end to keep the two points they fought so hard to earn.

“You saw Marchant,” said MacLean. “Sydor was a horse for us…you can go down the list and there isn’t a guy in there who didn’t give everything he had. This win is very gratifying.”

“We’ve been known to have great performances at home, but now we need to back them up,” said Denis. “It was a tough game. We didn’t get off to the start we wanted, to be honest with you, but we figured it out and had a much better second and third period. When you lose warriors like Tyler Wright and Duvie Wescott, it means you have to play the game with three lines and five D. We just stuck with it. We played with a lot of poise at the end of the game, which was nice to see. It was a nice win against the Rangers, but we needed to back it up.”

Back it up they did. While the atmosphere in the locker room was festive, nobody seemed to be getting ahead of themselves. After all, a 2-1 record is just that, and no team has ever made the playoffs with four points.

“I’m not too into measuring sticks at three games,” said MacLean. “Talk to me after 82.”


Sirk’s 3 Stars

#1- Todd Marchant (CBJ): He was everywhere. Not only did he have a hand in all three Columbus goals, but he was the first player to hit the ice when a shot needed blocking. Plus he logged a defenseman-esque 23 minutes and 34 seconds of ice time as the team was forced to scramble lines.

#2- David Vyborny (CBJ): Not only did he get the Jackets on the board, but his two-way play was again invaluable. A notable defensive play occurred early in the third. With the score tied at two, the Canucks sprung a 2-on-1 break, but Vyborny dove in on the backcheck to swat the puck away from Artem Chubarov, snuffing out the chance. “How good of a player has this guy become?” MacLean asked rhetorically. “He never stops. 5-on-5, power play, penalty killing…he’s become a very, very good hockey player.”

#3- Mattias Ohlund (VAN): Always a solid defensman, Ohlund produced a great all-around game. One goal, one assist, a +2 rating, and he delivered the hit of the game, laying out Andrej Nedorost with a jarring check at the blue line.