Wilson shines as Jackets overcome the Hawks at home
By Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired 
Photos By Tom Theodore and Revonda Gentry

Clay Wilson made his National Hockey League debut Tuesday night in Nashville and recorded a modest three shots.  Twenty-four hours later,  the rookie scored his first goal and assisted on another to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets past the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 in front of 14,454 at Nationwide Arena.

“I came up not expecting too much, just trying to keep it simple on defense,” Wilson said. “Luckily, tonight things went well. (Nikolai Zherdev) made a nice pass to me in the slot. I closed my eyes and the puck went in. It’s just a great feeling.”

Wilson was acquired with fellow defenseman Aaron Rome from Anaheim for Geoff Platt back in November. In 53 games with Syracuse, Wilson was a plus-11 with nine goals and 27 assists (36 points). He was recalled on an emergency basis when Ole-Kristian Tollefsen suffered a cracked vertebra high in his neck.

“I felt more comfortable tonight than I did last night” Wilson said. “First period, I was pretty nervous but as the game went on, I started feeling more comfortable.”

Jiri Novotny also had a goal and an assist, while Joakim Lindstrom and Michael Peca each scored for Columbus, who broke a three-game losing streak. Fredrik Norrena picked up his second shutout of the season with 17 saves a night after getting yanked after giving up three goals in a 3-0 loss at Nashville.

“We didn’t help him much as a team last night,” Jackets captain Rick Nash said. “Tonight, he answered back and clearly was our best player.”

Lindstrom gave the Jackets a 1-0 lead 4:49 into the second period on the power play with a snap shot from the right point. Wilson assisted on the goal for his first NHL point. The power play goal ended a 0-for-14 skid.

Wilson then scored, hitting a slap shot from the slot at 7:13 of the second off a pass from Zherdev. That would count as his second career point and first multi-point effort in the NHL.

“All of us down in the minors want to make it up here,” Lindstrom said. “We try as hard as we can to make an impression. We battle for our lives every single game to help the team and also help ourselves.

The Columbus lead grew to 3-0 one minute, 26 seconds later when Novotny took a centering pass from David Vyborny and put the puck over the shoulder of Chicago goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

Peca scored at 11:57 on a wrist shot that bounced off Khabibulin’s glove and through his legs to give the Jackets a 4-0 lead.

The game was a far cry from the last two times the Blackhawks have come into Nationwide and put up a combined 13 goals.

“The last two times they came in here they embarrassed us in our own building,” Nash said. “A division team like that, you don’t ever want to see that happen. Tonight we answered the bell and I thought it was one of our best games in a while.”

Columbus outshot Chicago 36-17 and went 1-for-6 with the man-advantage. Chicago went 0-for-3. Khabibulin had 28 saves.

The Jackets host Nashville Friday night at 7 p.m.