Columbus erases the Blues 6-4
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore

Columbus (20-18-6) returned home from a four-game road trip to face the St. Louis Blues. It was a second chance game for the Jackets who lost 6-1 in St. Louis on Tuesday to end the trip. The end result was different this time as Nikolai Zherdev scored two highlight reel goals, Jason Chimera, Dan Fritsche and Ron Hainsey also scored. Adam Foote had three assists and Rick Nash scored his 23rd goal of the season as Columbus rallied for a 6-4 win over the Blues.

Blues goalie Hannu Toivonen looked like he was going to stop everything thrown at him. In the first period alone, he made stunning saves against Chimera (1-on-1), Nash (open net) and Michael Peca (in perfect position for a rebound). In fact, Columbus had three great chances in the first four shots taken.

St. Louis (22-15-5) scored first on a goal by David Backes. Columbus came back on Nash’s goal when Sergei Fedorov fed a saucerpass to Nash through the neutral zone. Nash wasted no time flicking his snapshot past Toivonen to tie the score 1-1.

Jackets went up 2-1 when Ron Hainsey’s slap shot from just inside the blue line found its way to the back of the net. They then increased the score to 3-1 on Chimera’s sixth goal of the season. It had been a long time for Chimera who had not scored in the last 26 games.

“(That) was really weighing on him,” said head coach Ken Hitchcock. “That line was effective again and hopefully they can back it up with a really good performance tomorrow."

After that, St. Louis coach Andy Murray called a timeout to gather his troops. Whatever he said seemed to work for the rest of the second period. They were being out shot 21-8 when the timeout was called and ended the period. They then out shot Columbus 10-2.

The Blues finally wrestled the momentum away from Columbus after they stopped a Columbus power play and then the Jackets took a penalty for a ‘too many men’ bench minor. Brad Boyes wasted no time in potting his 24th goal of the season to creep closer.

"It was crazy.” Hitchcock said. “We had so many odd man rushes in the first period and your sitting down 1-0, then you get up 3-1 and look like you are controlling the game, then we get too many men on the ice. The game really changed momentum about five times."

They then tied the game 3-3 when Andy McDonald was in front of the net to put in a rebound off Pascal Leclaire, who won his 14th game of the year in stopping 26-of-30 shots on goal.

In the past, the Jackets would have been skating on their heels, but when Zherdev did a neat little toe drag of the puck between his legs and then between the legs of Jay McKee, momentum swung back the Columbus with a 4-3 lead.

“Tonight was a huge effort. After what happened earlier this week in St. Louis, we were pretty sour about it and the guys came out pretty hard,” Leclaire said.

Dan Fritche added his 7th of the campaign and then Zherdev added his second goal of the game when on the power play, he took the long outlet pass from David Vyborny. There he was 1-on-1 with Toivonen. He went forehand to a sweeping backhand, leaving Toivonen on the ice and the puck on the back of the net.

"That's what he does - he changes games around," Chimera said. "He's one of those superstars in this league right now. It's one of those things, when he gets the puck the other team kind of backs off."

The Blues would add a goal with less than a minute remaining, but it was too late to do any damage.

Blues coach Andy Murray summed it up best when he said. "They worked extremely hard and they were focused on this hockey game. All I know is it was 3-3 in the third period and we didn't get it done."

"For what happened in St. Louis, to come back with an effort like this was very impressive. This is a nice step to make a move right now," said Hitchcock.

Columbus turns right around to host Nashville, as Hitchcock calls them, ‘Darth Vader’. Time for a little revenge of the Jedi.