White Out Night for Columbus
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore

Jarred Smithson scored two first period goals to lead the Nashville Predators to a 4-1 victory over the Blue Jackets in the back end of a home-home series. Paul Kariya and Shea Weber also tallied goals for Nashville. 16,825 fans mostly dressed in the free t-shirts given away by the team and Fox Sports booed early and often showing their disappointment with the team’s effort.

Columbus seemed sluggish and lethargic during the first period. They were credited with 6 shots on goal, but they did not tally a shot until fifteen minutes into the period. Fredrik Norrena gave up three goals the first eight shots he faced and was pulled after the 1st period for backup Ty Conklin.

Smithson’s first goal came at 5:06 on an errant turnover by Nikolai Zherdev which Nashville pounced on. Zherdev’s attempted pass around the rim in the Jackets zone was intercepted by Scott Nichol. Nichol passed to Josef Vasicek in the slot. Norrena stopped the initial shot, but not before Smithson slipped between two defensemen sliding the rebound into the open net.

"The rebound was there and I just whacked it in," Smithson said.

His second came minutes later at 7:56 due to another turnover by Zherdev. With the Jackets in the Nashville end, Zherdev tried to pass the puck back to Derrick Walser. Nichol again pounced on the puck and found Smithson up ice. Smithson took the puck up ice and put a 50-foot slap shot right between the legs of Norrena.

“They expose your mistakes,” said Norrena. “You make one mistake, and it seems to hurt you every time.”

Kariya added his 15th goal of the season with less than two minutes left in the 1st period to give Nashville a nice cushion. Shea Weber also scored for Nashville (31-11-3), who has won the last 8 of 11, including the previous two, both against Columbus.

“They got the 3-0 lead and tried to sit on it, said Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock. “I thought the big goal of the game was the fourth goal that was huge. I told the players, if we just get a second one, we’re going to win the hockey game.”

Columbus (16-24-5) was without the services of Rick Nash, Sergei Fedorov, Duvie Westcott, Jody Shelley, Adam Foote and Alexander Svitov. They have also been without the services goaltender Pascal LeClaire (out three more weeks) and Bryan Berard (out all season-back). What was left resembled the Syracuse shuttle.

“You can’t lose top end people and continue to play hockey without having to make huge adjustments,” said Hitchcock.

The Jackets came out with a little more spirit in the second period. Ron Hainsey’s slapshot from 65 feet out narrowed the score to 3-1, but Columbus could not get any others past Chris Mason, who played one of his best games of the year.

Weber’s goal showed what tonight’s game was like. JP Dumont, Steve Sullivan also had scoring chances on the drive as Nashville swarmed Conklin.

Chris Mason stopped 39 shots he faced to earn his 18th victory of the season.

“If it wasn’t for (goaltender Chris) Mason, this game could have been a lot closer,” said Predators head coach Barry Trotz.

The most excitement the fans witnessed was the late game scrap between Dan Fritsche and Scott Hartnell with six minutes remaining in the contest. Hartnell got 4 penalties for 19 minutes in all for the ruckus including fighting, instigator, instigator-misconduct and instigator-facemask.

Things don’t look much brighter as Columbus plays the next two on the road, returning home on Friday to face Detroit.