Mason gets first NHL victory  (11/05/08)
by Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

Steve Mason made his National Hockey League debut Wednesday night and with the help of Manny Malhotra picked up his first career victory.  Malhotra scored with 69 seconds remaining to rally the Columbus Blue Jackets past the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 in front of 11,288 in Nationwide Arena.

Columbus held a two-goal lead after one period, but the Oilers scored four straight goals to lead 4-2 early in the third. The Jackets then rallied with a pair of goals in less than a minute to set up Malhotra’s heroics.

The veteran batted in a Raffi Torres’ second effort as Edmonton goaltender Dwayne Roloson had blocked the initial shot. Roloson was down in the crease when Malhotra hit the puck in the empty net.

“It was a fortunate bounce on the wall and Raffi had a great shot on net,” Malhotra said. “I thought it was initially in, but I saw the rebound and jumped all over it.”
 

Mason was called up on Tuesday and quickly moved into the starting lineup when Fredrik Norrena tweaked his groin. He ended the game with 22 saves, including several in the final minutes with Edmonton pressing.

“I was rusty and made some mistakes that cost us some goals, especially on the fourth one, but I felt pretty good,” Mason said. “I was trying to keep it simple and concentrate on my next save.”

The 20-year old went 32-7-3 last season in the Ontario Hockey League and is 2-1 with a 1.83 goals-against average in Syracuse this season. He becomes the first Blue Jacket goalie to win his NHL debut with the team.

“First game—hard circumstances,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s like a lot of our young guys, on the job training right now. I think he learned how good the NHL is and the shooters. He made a couple of good saves on the penalty kill.”

Torres picked up a pair of assists, including the game-winner, against his former team. His first assist was his first point since Dec. 10, 2007 in Dallas while with the Oilers. He said it felt great getting a win against his former team.

“They’re going to be a good team,” Torres said. “We’re not going to quit and we’re sticking to it to the end.”

Kristian Huselius, Derek Brassard, R.J. Umberger and Fredrik Modin also each scored for the Jackets, while Jake Voracek and Mike Commodore also added two assists.

The Jackets took a 1-0 lead with one minute, 25 seconds remaining in the first period on the power play. Voracek sent a pass to Huselius who walked to the right face-off dot and hit a wrist shot off the far post.

Brassard made it 2-0 on a break-a-way when he beat Dwayne Roloson glove side off a feed from Commodore at 2:31 of the second.

“We had a lot of players play really, really well,” Hitchcock said. “We deserved this one tonight. We earned it.”

Edmonton broke up Mason’s shutout just over three minutes later when Andrew Cogliano scored a power play goal.

The Oilers then tied the game when Voracek turned the puck over behind Mason and Ethan Moreau hit the puck off the crossbar at 16:28. It was a shorthanded goal, the fifth allowed by Columbus this year.

Ales Hemsky then gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead 47 seconds into the third when he stole the puck from Modin in the neutral zone, skated to the left face-off circle and went top shelf on Mason.

Kyle Brodziak then scored at 2:07, beating Mason stick side when the Jackets failed to clear the puck.

“It’s disappointing to lose a game that you’re leading by two goals, but it’s in the fashion that we lose the game,” Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. “That speaks to inexperience, it speaks to our collective gamesmanship as a team right now and it’s a painful lesson.”

Umberger stopped the Oilers’ run with a second-effort goal at 3:50. Rick Nash took the initial shot and Commodore got the rebound and fired a shot on net that Umberger finished off.

Modin tied the game 56 seconds later when he tapped in a loose puck in the crease.

Again, the talk after the game was the play of Voracek, Brassard and Mason.

“Brassard and Voracek have been stellar doing their job, getting points on the power play, being strong offensively,” Malhotra said. “For Mason to step in and play his first game and make a lot of big saves for us, that’s huge. I think it says a lot for out youngsters and the future of this team.”

Roloson had 33 saves for Edmonton, who is in the middle of a seven-game road trip. Columbus outshot the Oilers 38-26 and went one-for-six on the power play.

The Jackets host Montreal and Calgary on back-to-back nights starting Friday at 7 p.m.