Jackets lose 6-3 to Chicago
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired  Photos By Tom Theodore

As the playoff hunt evaporates quickly, tonight the 15, 699 fans at Nationwide Arena witnessed the Jackets falling behind 3-0, fighting back to 2-3 and 3-4, before finally falling to the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3.

Chicago was led by early first period goals from Duncan Keith, Dave Bolland and Cam Barker, who scored his 5th goal of the season only one minute into the contest.

The Jackets need to score first as evidenced by their 21-3-6 record when scoring first. This season, they have gone 9-25-5 when the opponent scores first and has won only one game out of the last nine home games, while posting a 7-4-2 road record since Jan. 22nd.

Columbus got goals from Fredrik Modin (8), Dan Fritche (10) and newly named captain Rick Nash (36).

Just one minute into the game, Barker picked up the puck that was driven from the left soft wall and pinched in with a slap shot that beat Leclaire short stick side. It was Barker’s 4th goal of the year.

Duncan Keith would add his 7th goal of the season at the 11:21 mark. He was left alone on the left point and picked up a rebound off a shot by Robert Lang.

Bollard completed the 1st period scoring trio when rookie Patrick Kane, who was drafted last June here at Nationwide Arena, took a shot off a pivot backhand. Leclaire made the initial stop, but Bollard was there to pick up the puck and slam it home for the 3-0 lead.

“We got the puck, we got possession, we gave it away, in our net. That's never good, obviously," said Jackets defenseman Ron Hainsey.

After that goal, Ken Hitchcock called a time out and changed out Leclaire (24-16-6) for Fredrik Norrena (7-13-5) who has not played since giving up six goals on February 13th to these same Blackhawks, also in Columbus.

It helped as the period ended and the Jackets had time to regroup. They came out firing in the second period scoring two goals :27 apart (Modin, Fritche) to narrow the Hawks lead to 3-2.

But that was short lived when rookie Patrick Kane notched is 17th goal of the season to put the Hawks back in a comfortable 4-2 lead.

The goal was a showcase of rookies Kane and Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. Kane, who was in the box for a hooking call, came out of the box and was involved in a two-on-one with Toews.  Toews took the initial shot and Kane was there to poke the puck under the pads of Norrena.

"I thought when we got it back to 3-2, we were going to win … that goal was disappointing”, Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Then, to comeback and make it 4-3 and to give it up that quickly for the fifth, it was the same thing. We turned it over four times in our zone on the fifth goal."

"We made mistakes on a couple goals, but we kept our composure," said Chicago head coach Dennis Savard. "I like the poise that we had. We never panicked, kept going at them and got a good result."
Nash, named the captain on Wednesday, scored his 36th goal of the season at 7:15 of the 3rd period to get the Jackets within one goal, but they could not get any closer.

Coach Ken Hitchcock was left to wonder why his team is giving up so many pucks, leading to scoring chances and goals. Entering the game, both Columbus and Chicago were tied with 73 points and seven points out of any playoff hopes with only 11 games remaining.

"We were really poor in our own zone," Hitchcock said. "We weren't poor with our coverage, we were poor with the puck."

Things don’t get easier as Columbus continues its home stand Sunday at 3:00 against arch rival Detroit.