Kenny Greer/The LanternColumbus Blue Jackets rookie foward Jakub Voracek is denied by Chicago’s Cristobal Huet on his attempt to prolong Saturday’s shootout. Voracek had his fifth assist of the season on former Buckeye R.J. Umberger’s first period goal during the 4-3 loss to Chicago.The Jackets (4-6-1) finished 1-for-10 on the man-advantage and failed to kill their own penalties, allowing two Chicago (5-3-3) goals while a man down.
“We overwhelmed them for most of the game but lost the special teams game,” Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They scored two on the power play, we got one, that’s the story of the game.”
Columbus took costly penalties which cut short three power play opportunities and made it even more difficult to gain the lead.
Columbus forward Jason Chimera took two of the penalties and the third was a bench penalty for too many men on the ice.
“It seems to be a trend this year,” Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash said. “We’ve been taking a lot of penalties when we’re on the power play.”
The three power plays which were cut short amounted to 3:38 of additional time the Jackets would have had with the man-advantage.
Chicago struck first when Patrick Sharp scored his seventh goal of the season at the 13:45 mark of the first period.
The lead was short-lived as former Buckeye R.J. Umberger scored his first goal of the season to tie the game at one, by deflecting a shot off his skate and tipping the puck in with his stick.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Umberger said of his goal. “[I’m] Just trying to work hard these last few games and do all the small things right.”
Chicago’s Brent Seabrook scored the lone goal of the second period while the Blackhawks were on the power play.
Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin scored his first goal of the season, a short-handed goal with an assist from Nash, to tie the game at two.
“Tyutin to me is not only our best defenseman, I think some night’s he’s our best player,” Hitchcock said “I think he’s playing great right now.”
Chicago regained the lead only 33 seconds later on a Martin Havlat goal.
Once again Columbus bounced back to tie the game when Kristian Huselius scored his fourth goal of the season.
The crowd of 14,680 helped swing the momentum heavily in favor of the Jackets following Huselius’ goal, but it was not enough as Chicago goaltender Cristobal Huet made one big save after another in the closing minutes of regulation and during overtime, finishing with 48 saves.
Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews scored the only goal during the shootout to beat Columbus goaltender Fredrik Norrena.
Hitchcock said special teams has to improve, starting with the penalty-killers, but was happy about his team’s even-strength play.
“If we continue to play like this 5-on-5 and 4-on-4, we’re going to have a really good run here,” Hitchcock said.
James Crepea can be reached at [email protected].
