Blue Jackets 2, Blues 1: Gritty effort gets win
At long last, late call on goal finally goes their way
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Puck Rakers
A blog about the Blue Jackets and the NHL
One Signed, Two Set Free
The Blue Jackets have agreed to terms with defenseman Austin Madaisky on a three-year, entry-level contract, and the official deal should be announced shortly. Madaisky was a fifth-round pick (No. 124 overall) in the 2010 NHL entry draft.
Two other picks - right winger Petr Straka (2nd round, No. 55) and defenseman Brandon Archibald (4th round, No. 94) - have been informed by the Blue Jackets that they won't be signed, sending them back in the pool of draftable players for next month's draft in Pittsburgh.
Of those two, Straka is the mild surprise.
He had 28-36-64 in 62 games with Rimouski (QMJHL) during his draft year, but tailed off badly the last two seasons. In 2010-11, he had 10-15-25 in 41 games. This season, he had 18-19-37 in 54 games. That's fewer points the last two seasons -- 62 in 95 games -- than he scored as a 17-year-old.
However, Straka made a pretty good last-best argument for a deal with his performance in the QMJHL playoffs. He had 10-12-22 in 21 games, becoming a point-a-game player once again. The bet here is that he gets drafted his June, but certainly on Saturday (2nd through 7th rounds) and probably later in the day.
The Blue Jackets acquired the pick used on Straka with the 2010 trade deadline deal that sent winger Raffi Torres to Buffalo.
Madaisky, meanwhile, blossomed this season in his fourth year of juniors, the last three spent with Kamloops (WHL). He had 13 goals, 37 assists, 50 points and a plus-20 rating, all career highs. He also had 87 penalty minutes. He could play a fifth year of junior next season, or begin his pro career, likely with AHL Springfield.
Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson and the hockey operations department face one last difficult decision as it pertains to the 2010 draft class. Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil remains unsigned, and the Jackets still aren't sure if they want to keep him in the fold.
"We'll evaluate him in the Memorial Cup and make a decision," Howson said. "Not sure right now."
Corbeil is 50-11-2 in the last two seasons with Saint John of the QMJHL, which won the Memorial Cup last season and is a favorite to repeat. Corbeil, named the QMJHL's goalie of the year, is 16-0-1 in this year's playoffs, with a 2.18 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
Those numbers will cause many readers to scratch their temples and wonder: "How could they possibly not want this guy?" What the Blue Jackets are trying to determine is if Corbeil is a product of a powerhouse hockey club or a goaltender with legitimiate NHL potential. These are the questions that keep scouts up late at night.
Two weeks ago, the Blue Jackets seemed to be leaning away from signing Corbeil. These days it seems to be leaning back the other direction, though no decision has been made.
-- Aaron Portzline
twitter: @aportzline
The Blue Jackets’ Derek Dorsett, left, who scored the game-winner, battles Blues defenseman and former teammate Kris Russell against the boards.
Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason said he had no idea where the puck was with 1.8 seconds remaining against the St. Louis Blues last night in Nationwide Arena.
Good thing, because by then the puck had worked its way out of a wild scramble in the crease and slithered under his pads and across the goal line.
The red lamp behind Mason’s net was lit. An official signaled goal.
An announced audience of 12,425 groaned.
Upon further review, the fans cheered.
The goal was nullified after it was determined that Blues winger David Perron had scored by punching the puck over the line with his fist while lying on top of Mason, and the Blue Jackets were assured a 2-1 win that they probably deserved in a hard-hitting, fast-moving game against one of the NHL’s best teams.
“They made the right call,” Perron said. “I fell down and kind of hit the puck with my hand and it went in.”
It assured Mason of his 84th career victory, tying the Blue Jackets record set by Marc Denis. That it came against a smoking-hot team that’s on the heels of Western Conference leader Detroit made it all the more enjoyable.
“That really kind of reminds me of playoff hockey,” said Blue Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski, who scored in the final tenth of a second of the first period to tie the score at 1 and earlier cleared a puck off the goal line to keep game scoreless.
Playoff hockey? The last-place Blue Jackets?
“Everybody is hitting,” Wisniewski said. “It was fast, up and down. February and March, those are the hardest games to win. We’re getting a taste of it. Hopefully, we can try to play spoiler.”
Derek Dorsett scored the winner at 6:49 of the third period.
After linemates Antoine Vermette and Sammy Pahlsson took their cracks with wrist shots saved by Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halak, an off-balance Dorsett crashed the net and buried the rebound of Pahlsson’s attempt.
It was Dorsett’s 10th goal of the season. He had never scored more than four in any of his previous three seasons.
“There are still 25 games left,” Dorsett said. “I don’t want to stop at 10.”
The Blues, the league’s stingiest defensive team, played as billed in the first period, when they held the Blue Jackets to six shots.
The last of those, though, was costly. Blue Jackets center Jeff Carter won an offensive zone faceoff with two seconds remaining and sent the puck toward Mark Letestu near the half wall.
Letestu redirected it to center, where Wisniewski one-timed a blast from 53 feet that crossed the goal line as the buzzer sounded. It, too, was reviewed, but the goal stood after it was determined that it crossed the line before time expired.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead with 1:09 left in the first period when a turnover by Carter led to a short-handed goal by St. Louis captain David Backes.
Backes capped a 2-on-1 rush with Perron by flipping a backhand past Mason.
It could have been 2-0 at that point, but Wisniewski earlier raked a puck off the goal line, denying Blues winger Chris Stewart what looked to be a sure power-play goal.
Wisniewski’s save helped the Blues from winning a fifth straight game.
“We all dug in,” Dorsett said. “We beat a really good team, a team that’s been really hot as of late.
“We just have to make sure we keep playing that way the rest of the season and show people that we do care.”
smitchell@dispatch.com
