Voracek, Garon lead Jackets past Oilers (11/17/09)
by Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

Jakub Voracek scored in the fourth round and Mathieu Garon continued his stellar play in the shootout to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets over the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in front of 13,030 in Nationwide Arena Monday.
 
After Voracek scored, Garon stopped former Jacket Gilbert Brule to ice the win. It is the second straight and 18th overall shootout win in his career. During the 2007-08 season, Garon was 10-0 in shootouts with Edmonton
 
“I’ve said it before, when (we) score first, it makes it easier on the goalie to protect the lead,” Garon said. “(I’ve been charging at the skater) my entire career and the last couple of years it seems to be working pretty well for me.”
 
Voracek said he took a similar shot in a shootout game during the preseason and hit the post, so he wanted to try it again. The move fooled everyone, including coach Ken Hitchcock.

“I never saw him use that play in the shootout,” Hitchcock said. “I put him there go try to go five-hole and he went in a different direction. It kinda surprised us.”
 
Fedor Tyutin also scored in the shootout and added assists on both Jackets goals. Anton Stralman had a goal and an assist and Antoine Vermette scored. Garon stopped 23-of-25 shots and stoned Patrick O’Sullivan, Dustin Penner and Brule in the shootout.
 
Lubomir Visnovsky had a goal and an assist, while Ales Hemsky also scored for Edmonton. Hemsky has 11 goals and 20 assists in 23 games against Columbus. Sheldon Souray had a pair of assists and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 30 shots.
 
“We had a pretty good game from everyone,” Souray said. “We had great goaltending tonight. We had a couple of breakdowns. We got away lucky.”
 
The Jackets have now gone 5-1-2 in their last eight games after a 1-4-1 stretch in mid-October. The team played without Raffi Torres (jaw), Sammy Phalsson (arm) and Mike Commodore (fatigue).
 
“It’s all about getting points; just find a way to get points,” Hitchcock said. “ It would have been a tough pill to swallow (not to get points tonight). We’re pretty happy right now. We didn’t play our best tonight, but we got points and that’s a good sign.”
 
Tommy Sestito was recalled and played his second NHL game, replacing Nikita Filatov. Several reports have surfaced that Filatov may return to Russia to play for his former club team, CSKA Moscow. Hitchcock and Jackets General Manager Scott Howson would not comment on the matter.
The teams traded power play goals in the second period and third periods
 
Stralman hit a one-time off a feed from Kristian Huselius at 7:08 with the Jackets on a two-man advantage.
 
“Juice made a great pass,” Stralman said. “I was getting ready to shoot and it got off and it slipped through his legs.”
 
Hemsky answered with an innocent shot that split the legs of Dustin Penner and Jackets defenseman Rusty Klesla and off the leg pad of Garon to tie the game at 13:13.
 
Visnovsky put Edmonton up early in the third period off a juicy rebound. Souray took the initial shot that Garon saved, but the rebound went right to the stick of Visnovsky for the score.
 
Vermette tied the game at two on the power play when he deflected in a Tyutin shot from the blue line at 12:26.
 
The Jacket outshot the Oilers 32-25 and went two-for-four on the power play. Edmonton was two-for-five with the man-advantage.
 
Columbus embarks its longest road trip of the season with games in Dallas, Nashville, New York, Montreal and Ottawa over eight days. The club returns home Nov. 28 to host Calgary.
 
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” Vermette said. “We know it’s not going to be easy with a lot of travel and some good teams. I think we’ve been pretty successful on the road (lately), so (winning) these last two games here at home helps out confidence.
 
dave.seaman@columbuswired.tv
Twitter: @daveseaman94