Columbus drops fourth game of six-game home stand to Montreal
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore

The Montreal Canadians made a rare appearance in Columbus, scored three 2nd period goals and skated off with a 3-2 victory, snapping their six-game losing streak, in front of 16,116 announced fans at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets have hosted the Canadians only once, losing 3-1 on Nov. 12, 2001.

During the six game home stand, Columbus has lost to teams they should have beaten (Phoenix, Chicago, St. Louis) and defeated teams that they should have lost to (Calgary, San Jose).

Meanwhile, Montreal (30-25-6, 66 pts.) had lost the last six games after starting the season 21-8-5. The Canadians are now tied with rival Toronto for the final postseason spot in the East.

Montreal was playing without starting goaltender Cristobal Huet. The All-Star will undergo surgery on his left hamstring and be sidelined indefinitely after injuring it in a loss to New Jersey on Wednesday.

Canadians head coach Guy Carbonneau decided sit backup David Aebischer and go with rookie Jaroslav Halak, who was called up from Hamilton of the AHL on Friday. Halak did not disappoint, stopping 31 shots for his first NHL victory.

“The best thing was that he was able to control his rebounds,” Carbonneau said. “We were looking for a good performance and he gave it to us.”

"It would have been nice to get the shutout but we got the two points," the 21-year-old goaltender said.

The Blue Jackets (23-31-5) are last in the Central Division with 51 points. The loss was the fourth during a franchise high six-game homestand. Columbus did make a run in the 3rd period by goals by Nikolai Zherdev (8) and Gilbert Brule (6) but it was not enough to overtake the lead Montreal built.

“Usually when you miss quality chances they will come back to hurt you,” commented Columbus head coach Ken Hitchcock. “I thought when we went 3-2, we might tie it up. We were all around it (the net), but it's hard mounting comebacks like that."

During the first period, the refs were in a gift giving mood towards our friends from the north. Chris Higgins took down Dan Fritsche in front of the Havs goal (no call). Sheldon Souray tripped Rick Nash also in front of the Habs goal (no call).

With 5- minutes remaining in the period and with Columbus on a run, the ref lost sight of the puck even though it was loose and blew the whistle, preventing a Fredrik Modin shot. And lastly, Jason Chimera was called for boarding when it clearly was a good check.

"The first period was the best period we've played of the six home games, by far, did everything we needed to do except score,” Hitchcock said.

The penalty on Chimera would carry over to the 2nd period. The Canadians then scored just 18-seconds into the next frame. Michael Ryder took a pass from Saku Koivu and put it past Leclaire for his 17th goal of the season.

At 6:02, Ryder and Koivu got together again. Ryder made a nifty inside-out move that left Jackets defenseman Rostislav Klesla on all fours and then made a perfect pass to Koivu as Leclaire was sprawled and could not make the save. It was also Koivu’s 17th goal of the year.

“The first few power plays, they weren’t together and nothing happened, Carbonneau said. “We tried to make a change with different personnel and they clicked.”

Montreal made it 3-0 just a few moments later traffic was in front of the goal. At 8:37 defenseman Francis Bouillon let loose a bullet from 53 feet that Leclaire did not see as he was screened by two Canadians parked in front of the net.

Hitchcock summed it up nicely when he said, “We turned the puck over on their two power play goals, we had chances to clear and we turned it over.”

Columbus now heads to St. Louis on Tuesday before returning home on Thursday to host Edmonton.



NOTES:
Aaron Johnson was scratched for the fourth time in a row.