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Byfuglien, fellow blue-liners spark Blackhawks

Feb 14, 2008 - 4:30 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Defenseman Dustin Byfuglien scored two goals as the Chicago Blackhawks tallied four times in the first period and cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

Fellow blue-liners Brent Seabrook and James Wisniewski each had a goal and an assist and Brent Sopel set up a pair of tallies for the Blackhawks, who set a season high with seven goals in improving to 2-3-1 on their seven-game, 17-day road trip.

"To have an outbreak like that, I think it gives us confidence (that) we can score against any team in the league," Seabrook said.

"It was a great team win," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "All four lines competed. Our six defensemen competed and the goaltending again by (Nikolai) Khabibulin was solid."

Defenseman Dick Tarnstrom and Fredrik Modin scored for the Blue Jackets, who have lost seven of their last eight and been outscored, 31-15, in that stretch.

"We gave the puck away for the first five goals," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We turned it over in critical spaces all night. It doesn't lead to winning hockey."

"We just have to regroup and move forward," Blue Jackets captain Adam Foote said.

Rookie Patrick Kane opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 55 seconds into the game, accepting a cross-ice feed from Wisniewski and beating goaltender Fredrik Norrena from in close for his 13th goal of the season.

Seabrook doubled the advantage 4 1/2 minutes later, stripping the puck from Michael Peca, skating down the ice and backhanding it past Norrena.

"It's one of those things. We try to get up on the play and help the forwards out and put some pucks in the net," Seabrook said. "Our forwards are so skilled and they are such great passers that they find us in the open spots and open lanes to put the puck in."

Byfuglien gave Chicago a three-goal edge with 5:51 remaining in the first period. After stealing the puck from defenseman Kris Russell in the neutral zone, he skated around a hard-charging Norrena and slid the puck into the vacant net.

"You have to stop a breakaway," Norrena said. "The team will get energy from that. I can't blame the team. Everyone is getting scoring chances; I just have to play better."

"I just skated in and saw him come out," Byfuglien said. "I just tried to get around him and put the puck on net, and it went in."

After making just one save on four shots, Norrena was relieved by Pascal Leclaire, who was battling the flu. Byfuglien greeted him just as rudely nearly three minutes later.

Sopel blasted a shot from the blue line that Leclaire denied, but Byfuglien gathered the rebound and beat the goaltender for his 11th goal and a 4-0 bulge.

"The puck was just loose and I tried to find it and put it in," Byfuglien said.

After Tarnstrom recorded a power-play goal to get Columbus on the scoreboard just 85 seconds into the middle period, Martin Havlat regained the four-goal advantage 6 1/2 minutes later. The talented Czech fired a sharp-angle shot between the pads of Norrena, who returned to start the second period.

The goal was Havlat's seventh of the season and first since January 11.

"The team played well tonight," Havlat said. "It has been a while and it was nice to finally get a goal. It has been a while, that's for sure."

Modin, who was activated from injured reserve earlier in the day, scored to cut the deficit to 5-2, but Wisniewski responded just over two minutes later with his sixth of the season.

Robert Lang capped the scoring with 33 seconds remaining in the third period, as his centering feed to Byfuglien inadvertently was knocked into the net by Modin as he attempted to clear the puck.