Columbus loses 4-3 to Chicago in shootout (11/01/08)
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired

The Columbus Blue Jackets rallied from behind three times to force overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks. In the shootout, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews scored his first goal of the season when his sharp wrist shot easily beat Frederik Norenna and Chicago won 4-3 in front of 14,680 at Nationwide Arena.

The star of the game was Chicago goaltender Cristobal Huet who stopped 44 shots in regulation, seven in overtime and all three Jackets chances in the shootout to earn improve his record to 2-2.

Fredrick Norrena did not look sharp after his win in Colorado.  He made his second start in a row filling in for the injured Pascal Leclaire, stopping 20 of 23 in regulation. In the second period he allowed one goal on only five attempts.

Chicago had the lead twice on goals from Patrick Sharp (7) and Brent Seabrook.

At 13:45 in the 1st period, Sharp took the puck off a bounce behind the goal the found its way to him in front of the net. Norenna had no chance to get over to his left to stop the shot putting Chicago ahead 1-0.

Three minutes later, R.J. Umberger scored his first Blue Jacket goal and his 50th career goal to tie the score 1-1.

At 8:18 in the third period, Columbus took the lead for a total of 33 seconds when defenseman Fedor Tyutin also score his first goal of the season.  Moments later, Martin Havlat followed with his fourth goal of the year when he snuck around to put away a rebound from Duncan Keith's shot keeping Chicago ahead 3-2.

Columbus did not give up even after the momentum shift. Kristian Husaleus scored at 12:08 when his wrist shot went over the shoulder of Huet to tie it 3-3.

Like regulation, Columbus had numerous chances in the overtime especially when Chicago was called for a minor penalty for too many men. Columbus took 7 shots in the overtime, but could not get anything past Huet.

"We didn't quit that shows a lot from our team, we've done that the last couple of games," Unberger said.  "I think we're close to putting this together, where we're going to go on a stretch here, you know, I've got a good feeling about this team."

"We have to find ways to score on the power play," said Jackets center Michael Peca.

Rick Nash had nine shots on goal, including a breakaway that Huet stopped. Nash did get an assist on Tyutin's goal, breaking a four game pointless streak. In the shootout, he tried a backhand deke, but Huet did not bite on the move and kept his pad down to stop the shot attempt.

"We overwhelmed them for most of the game, but we lost the special teams game," Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They scored two and we scored one and that's the story of the game. Then they won the shootout special teams, too."

Blue Jackets welcomed back Raffi Torres who separated his shoulder in a pre-season game and is making his first regular season start as a Jacket since being acquired in a trade with Edmonton for Gilbert Brule over the off-season.  Torres played 10:21 taking one shot and applying ten hits. 

The Jackets were coming off an impressive 4-2 win over the Avalanche on Thursday.  This was only the second win for Columbus in Colorado in 16 tries.  Norrena is the winning goalie of record for both wins, with the last one coming in 2006.

The Blackhawks, winning their second game in a row, improved to 4-1-2 under coach Joel Quenneville, who replaced Denis Sevard just a few games into the season.

"That was definitely a goalie win tonight," Quenneville said.  "He was great and we battled back there. I fell like he (Huet) was the story of the night and I feel that Jonny (Jonathan Toews) has been great in shootouts and we found a way (to win)."

Columbus now travels to play the Islanders on Monday before starting a four game home-stand beginning Wednesday against Edmonton, Montreal, Calgary and Phoenix.