Blue Jackets Lose 3-2 in OT in Home Opener
by Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

The new-look Columbus Blue Jackets opened the 2006-07 campaign Friday night with talk of the playoffs and the promise of an improved team.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Vancouver Canucks rallied from a two-goal deficit in the last 10 minutes, 31 seconds of the game to defeat the Jackets 3-2 in overtime.

Daniel Sedin scored the game-tying and game-winning goals to lead the Canucks, who outshot the Blue Jackets 44-20. Brendan Morrison also scored for Vancouver, while Henrik Sedin added two assists.

“They scored a lucky one on the (power play) and there was eight minutes left, then they put everything into their offense,” Jackets winger David Vyborny, who scored a goal said. “They then scored a lucky one in overtime.”

Mark Hartigan scored a goal and assist for Columbus.

The emphasis of the Blue Jackets during the preseason was its specialty teams. Both of the Jackets goals came on the power play and the team’s penalty kill was effective for three of the four Canuck power plays.

“We moved the puck around pretty good,” Jackets coach Gerard Gallant said. “We didn’t have any power plays in the second half of the game because we were not working and we were not in our zone. Overall, the power play did it’s job. It was the five-on-five hockey that wasn’t good.”

Columbus goaltender Pascal Leclaire proved why he was the team’s top goaltender, taking a shutout late into the third period before the Canucks rally. He stopped 41 shots and when the Jackets offense shut down in the second period, kept his team in the game.

“I felt pretty good,” Leclaire said. “We came out really strong and took control of the game. We got burned a couple of times and they came back.”

A sign of the hard work in the offseason paid off as the Jackets scored on its first power play of the season. With a precise pass from Duvie Westcott, Mark Hartigan redirected a slap shot from Ron Hainsey over the shoulder of Robert Luongo to give the Jackets a 1-0 leas 1:42 into the game.

After a fast start in the first period, the Jacket went cold offensively in the second. The team did not record a shot on goal for the first 11:52 of the period shot from Jody Shelley.

Despite the start, the Jackets finished the second period strong as Vyborny squeaked the puck between the legs of Luongo with the team on a two-man advantage at 17:13. Hartigan and Rick Nash assisted on the goal.

Things went bad really quick for the Blue Jackets after that. The team showed no urgency and had a hard time getting the puck into their zone, let a lone on goal. Vancouver took advantage and flexed their muscles in the comeback.

Morrison scored on the power play at 11:48 off a feed from Sami Salo.

Daniel Sedin tied the game with 2:11 remaining when Leclaire committed to his left and he went to his right. He scored the game-winner 31 seconds into overtime off a rebound.

“We knew they were going to come out hard,” Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. “I thought after the first 10 minutes of the first period we played extremely well. We generated a lot of shots and a lot of chances, and finally in the third, once we put one away, we found away to put a second away.”

Luongo had 18 saves for Vancouver.

The Jackets don’t get to dwell on the loss long as they play in Chicago Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

JACKETS NOTES:
Defenseman Rostislav Klesla did not play after being suspended by the NHL for two games on a hit on Chicago’s Tuomo Ruutu during the preseason. ... Alexander Svitov (shoulder), Sergei Fedorov (shoulder) and Brian Berard (lower back) also did not suit up for the Jackets’ opener due to injury. ... Nikolai Zherdev is still having visa troubles in Moscow and has not left for Columbus as of Friday. ... The Ohio Junior Blue Jackets were also introduced before the game and will play their inaugural game Saturday against Waterloo at 7 p.m.