Columbus Blue Jackets - 4 Edmonton Oilers - 6

October 22, 2009

Jeff Ponder

Mathieu Garon did not get the homecoming that he was hoping for.

The Blue Jackets, who signed Garon over the summer as a backup for starter Steve Mason, fell to the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place 6-4 Thursday night. Garon, a former Oiler, made 26 saves and surrendered 5 goals against in his first game in Edmonton since being traded in January of last season.

The Blue Jackets also seemed to have trouble with their special teams. The Central Division team took two late-third period penalties to help thwart their chances of a comeback. They allowed Edmonton to score 3 power-play goals on 7 total opportunities.

They also added just 1 goal on 4 power-play chances of their own, when former Oiler Raffi Torres connected on a nice pass from R.J. Umberger from behind the Edmonton net late in the first period. The goal started a flurry of chances for the Blue Jackets, who also saw Jason Chimera score, along with two goals from winger Kristian Huselius to take a demanding 4-1 lead in the middle of the second period. But the Oilers came roaring back and took the game late, getting goals from Ales Hemsky, Lubomir Visnovsky and two goals from Dustin Penner. Robert Nilsson added the empty-netter. Sam Gagner also scored the first goal of the game for the Oilers.

The game included five-point performances by Hemsky and Penner for the Oilers squad, who now find themselves one point behind the Colorado Avalanche for the Northwest Division lead.

"I was trying to set small goals first, I wasn't expecting to see my name up with the league leaders," Penner said, now seeing his name in fourth in the NHL point-scoring race with 14.
"That would have to be the best game of my career, certainly statistically. The stars lined up for me and my linemates tonight. It feels really good. I don't know the last time I was on a team that bounced back from down as much as we were. That's one of the games where you know the true meaning of momentum."

"We really shot ourselves in the foot," Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash said about the blown three-goal lead. "We had that game, up 4-1 on the road. We should definitely have won that. Our power play wasn't very good. We have to get over this one quick. We'll move on. It's a long season."

The Blue Jackets will head to Anaheim to take on the Ducks Saturday night at 10:00 EST in the second game of a three-game road trip.