|
 Robert Lang, Brent Seabrook, James Wisniewski and Martin Havlat each had a goal and an assist and Brent Sopel had two assists for the Blackhawks, who scored on three of their first four shots. Patrick Kane also scored.
Fredrik Modin, activated off the injured list earlier in the day, and Dick Tarnstrom had the goals for Columbus, which has lost seven of eight.
The Blackhawks led 4-0 after one period, inciting a crowd of almost 15,000 at Nationwide Arena to loudly boo the home team as they left the ice at the first intermission.
Chicago coach Denis Savard had ripped his team after it was shut out 1-0 by Pascal Leclaire in the teams' previous meeting on Jan. 24. Referring to the team mascot, he said that the Blackhawks needed to "commit to the Indian."
The Blackhawks were certainly committed on this night.
Coming in 27th in the NHL on the power play, they scored with a man advantage just 3:55 in. Wisniewski cranked up for a slap shot from the top of the left circle then spotted Kane streaking toward the net and passed to him for an easy tap-in.
With the teams each down a man, Columbus' Michael Peca tried a shot from the blue line that Seabrook blocked, the puck kicking past Peca. Seabrook beat him to the puck and then sailed in on Fredrik Norrena to net a backhand for his seventh of the season.
There were a smattering of boos -- which grew louder shortly after when Byfuglien scored his first. Blue Jackets rookie defenseman Kris Russell looked up while making a pass and Byfuglien jumped in, poking the puck away. Norrena came out of the net to try to poke the puck away but Byfuglien tucked the puck away and then scored into an empty net.
[to top of second column]
 |
Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Norrena and replaced him with Leclaire, who had the flu and was expected to be kept out of the action. Not quite.
It wasn't all Norrena's fault, as was evidenced when Byfuglien was at the doorstep for a jam shot of Sopel's shot from the point.
Norrena was back to finish up, however.
After the Blue Jackets finally broke through on Tarnstrom's first goal in a Columbus uniform, Havlat came right back to get his seventh of the season off a pretty feed from Lang to make it 5-1.
Modin, activated earlier in the day after missing six games with a muscle tear, scored in a scrum but the Blackhawks answered on Wisniewski's goal trailing the play off a nifty assist from Patrick Sharp.
Byfuglien was originally credited with a power-play goal in the final minute before officials ruled that Modin had inadvertently knocked the puck into the net and awarded the goal to Lang because he was the last Chicago player to touch it.
Notes: Columbus also sent D Marc Methot to Syracuse of the AHL. ... Chicago was playing its sixth game in a seven-game road trip. The Blackhawks are at Nashville on Thursday night. ... Sharp had his four-game goals streak ended.
[Associated Press; By RUSTY MILLER]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
|
