Jackets beat Colorado for second time in eight days
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

After trying for years to beat the Colorado Avalanche at home, the Jackets finally got the monkey off their back last week with a 5-4 victory. For the second time in eight days, the Jackets faced off against the Colorado Avalanche at Nationwide Arena.

Jared Boll scored the game winner with the only shot in the third period to lead the Jackets to a 4-1 victory over the Avs. The win gave head coach Ken Hitchcock his 450th in 850 games he has coached in the NHL.

Last week was the first home come from behind 5-4 victory for Columbus, this time they extended their home win streak against Colorado to two. The win also means that for the first time in franchise history, they will be at .500 against the Avs.

Jose Theodore (7-7-1) made only 12 saves in the loss.

Fredrik Norrena (4-5-3), who has not been playing much this season due to Pascal Leclaire’s run of shutouts and quality goaltending, got the start and stopped 15 shots on goal. Norenna made many game saving stops, including stuffing Brett Clark on a Colorado powerplay.

"He was our best player,” said Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock. “He was solid and made two big saves in the third period when we needed it. If he plays like this, he deserves more starts.”

It was the lowest combined shots on goal (both teams with just 16) in Jackets history.

"There weren't many scoring chances, there weren't many shots,” said Colorado forward Milan Hejduk. “It was kind of a frustrating game."

Columbus (14-11-6) came out and showed they were going to be physical and take the body. Through the first period the Jackets had eight hits to Colorado’s six.

Colorado (16-13-1, 4-9-1 on the road) was coming off a 9-5 win at St. Louis on Sunday just celebrated the franchises 1,000 win. However they have been struggling on the road this year, winning only 4 out of 16.

Jackets got on the board first at 10:21 at the first period. Manny Malhotra, coming back from missing the last five games, spun around the defenseman while Dan Fritsche with the puck back left of the net found and open Malhotra. His backhand from 10 feet found its way past Theodore. It was the fifth goal of the season for Malhotra.

Colorado tied it up 1-1 just into the second period. Andrew Brunette, playing in his 401st consecutive game, ripped a slapshot from inside the blue line. Norrena made the initial save, but left a rebound out there for Ben Guite to pounce on for his second goal of the season.

Jared Boll, making a presence all night long, scored his third goal of the season at 11:32 in the second period. Curtis Glencross set the table, dropping the puck off to a trailing Boll. Boll’s slapshot from 38 feet found the left corner of the net to put the Jackets back up 2-1. Jan Hejda was also credited with an assist.

"I love scoring. It's always fun to help your team win (with) other ways than just fighting and energy,” Boll said.

"It was a low checking, low chance game; very tight in the neutral zone trying to penetrate opportunities. Both teams were eliminating rush chances,” Colorado head coach Joel Quenneville said. “That second goal turned out to be a big goal. It was a critical goal."

Kris Beech added his third goal of the season and sealed the victory at 14:42 of the third period. Beech worked hard along the boards and came out with the puck at the right point. Took a shot towards the goal and with Novotny screening Theodore, the puck had eyes and found the back of the net.

Sergai Fedorov added an empty netter with :50 remaining just as Colorado had pulled the goalie for an extra skater.

"We knew we weren't going to win the game playing like we did the last game," Hitchcock said. "We knew where our energy level was based on the amount of games we've played and the regularity of them coming up every second night. I was happy with the way we played the last 15 minutes. We seemed to get a second wind."