The first playoff appearance for the Columbus Blue Jackets was short-lived. The last NHL franchise to appear in hockey's postseason only lasted the minimum four games against the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
The series concluded Thursday as Detroit escaped with a 6-5 victory. The game-winning goal came shortly after a controversial penalty called late in the game.
ZACH TUGGLE/THE LANTERN
Detroit Red Wings forwards Marian Hossa, left, and Tomas Holmstrom, center, celebrate after Holmstrom scored during Thursday's Game 4 against Columbus. The Blue Jackets lost 6-5.With the teams tied 5-5 in the third period, the officials were allowing the players to decide the game, passing on opportunities to call penalties on both teams.
"The officials had decided in the third period to let us determine the outcome," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They could have called a lot of penalties but they let the players decide the outcome. I just wish they let it finish that way."
With 1:34 to play, the Red Wings cleared the puck out of their zone. As forward Jakub Voracek finished a shift and skated off the ice, his replacement, Fredrik Modin, came onto the ice too early. Once Modin touched the puck, a linesman called a penalty on the Blue Jackets for too many players on the ice.
Detroit took advantage of the Jackets' miscue, with Johan Franzen scoring on the ensuing Detroit power play.
"It's a tough way to lose," Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash said. "What can you say? There's 19,000 people. Everyone saw what happened and I don't need to comment on it."
The Blue Jackets found themselves down two goals twice Thursday, but fought back both times, feeding off of the energy from a raucous crowd of 18,889 in Nationwide Arena.
"The fans were great; even when we were down 3-1 or 5-3, they weren't leaving us," Hitckcock said. "The fans, when we were down 5-3, brought us back as much as the players brought us back."
Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored his first goal of the playoffs during a Detroit power play 2:58 into the game and Detroit held a 3-1 lead after the first period.
Nash scored his first career playoff goal and former Buckeye R.J. Umberger added his third goal of the series to tie the game 3-3 less than six minutes into the second period. Detroit responded with back-to-back goals by Marian Hossa to build a 5-3 Wings lead, but Kris Russell and Modin brought the Jackets back before the end of the second period.
The third period was played at a feverish pace with both teams recognizing that the first mistake or miscue could lead to the game-winning goal and, in the end, it did.
Despite being swept, most of Columbus' players were pleased with Thursday's performance, with the exception of the penalty at the end of the game.
"The fourth game is supposed to be the toughest one to win if you're gonna win a series and it would have been real easy for us to shut it down," defenseman Mike Commodore said. "We gave it everything we had, we battled back as best we could and I'm proud of that."
James Crepea can be reached at crepea.1@osu.edu.
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