Detroit defeats Columbus 4-1 in nationally televised game.
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
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The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 in front of 17,450 fans at Nationwide Arena and to 75% of the national audience on NBC. Brett Lebda, Pavel Datsyuk each potted goals and Tomos Holmstrom added two more for Detroit, while Rick Nash scored a late game goal to steal the shutout from Dominick Hasek.

Columbus came to play in the 1st period of the early starting game and was ahead on shots 9-2 early on, including 4 shots on a power play.

But the second period belonged to the Red Wings as they scored three goals on 12 shots to pull away and pick up their 48th win of the year and keep their hopes alive for the President’s Cup, , given to the team with the most regular season points.

Fredrik Norrena, who had won four of his last five starts, gave up 3 goals in the second period to drop his record to 23-21-3. Asked if he could describe his frustration with the loss, he simply said, “No.”

"The first period as a whole was good - we played really well,” said Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock. “They turned the temperature up checking-wise in the second and pushed us out of the game."

Detroit was playing without captain Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall. Columbus did not have the services of Adam Foote, Jody Shelley and goaltender Brian Boucher. Dan LaCosta was called up from Syracuse as the backup goaltender. During the game Ole-Kristian Tollefsen was injured (hip pointer) and will not return this season.

"We've relied on our veteran players heavily because of our injury situation and what happen today was, we totally ran out of steam. You look how many games we’ve played and the heavy games we've had, and the battles we've had. In the last two hockey games it's really showed,” Hitchcock said.

Dominik Hasek (37-11-6) made 31 saves and would have had a shutout if it weren’t for Rick Nash’s wrap around goal at 19:01 of the 3rd period.

Hasek was hoping for a quick game with no overtime so his team could fly back to Detroit in time to attend Wrestlemania, being held at Joe Lewis Arena.

Detroit’s scored its first goal on a power play at 1:57 of the 2nd period. Brett Lebda’s shot from the blue line hit the top post and bounced in. The Red Wings are 31-5-4 when scoring first.

Holmstrom scored his first goal of the game as Detroit worked it low and got it high to the point. Jiri Hudler fired a shot from 53-feet. Norrena made the initial save, but Holmstrom was there to sweep in the rebound. His second goal in the 3rd period was similar fashion when a shot from the left flank caught Norrena moving from right to left and Holmstrom was once again there to tip the rebound in the net.

Detroit added their third goal of the period when Pavel Datsyuk stripped the puck from Anders Eriksson in the neutral zone on a Jackets power play. Datsyuk ripped it past Norrena for his unassisted,, short-handed goal.

“We didn't start exceptionally well, but we got better and better. We had good work today,” said Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock.


OTHER NOTES:
Todd Bertuzzi, acquired at the trade deadline by Detroit, was booed each time he touched the puck. Detroit fans started to then boo Sergai Fedorov, as they have done each time Columbus plays in Detroit. Columbus fans counted with cheers each time he touched the puck.

Columbus ends the season next weekend while Detroit is trying to secure the Presidents Cup and a #1 seating for the playoffs.