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Late goal by Malhotra gives Mason first career win

Nov 6, 2008 - 5:06 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- The Columbus Blue Jackets watched a two-goal lead turn into a two-goal deficit before using a burst of their own to end a slide at home.

Manny Malhotra scored with 69 seconds remaining in the third period Wednesday, snapping a tie and lifting the Blue Jackets to a 5-4 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers.

Kristian Huselius, Derick Brassard, R.J. Umberger and Fredrik Modin also tallied for Columbus, which rallied from a 4-2 deficit with three unanswered goals in the third to post its first home win in four tries.

Former Oiler Raffi Torres, Jakub Voracek and defenseman Mike Commodore each notched two assists while Steve Mason made 22 saves in his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets.

"Not too bad," Mason said. "A little rusty at some points in the game. I made some mistakes and cost us some goals, especially on that fourth one, but I felt pretty good."

"First game, hard circumstances," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He didn't know he was playing. He's like a lot of our young guys, on-the-job training right now. I think he learned how good the NHL is, and the shooters. Good lessons, and we'll move forward with it."

Andrew Cogliano, captain Ethan Moreau, Ales Hemsky and Kyle Brodziak scored for the Oilers, who fell to 2-2-0 on their season-high seven-game road trip.

"Just a sloppy game from the outset," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "It looked like we had it under control in the third period when it was 4-2. When you see games like that as many times as I've seen them over however many odd years, you know what the results are going to be, and sure enough, it happened. We're not near responsible enough or accountable enough for our play with the puck."

Huselius and Brassard each netted their fifth goal of the season to stake Columbus to a 2-0 lead. But Cogliano began a spurt of four straight tallies by Edmonton less than six minutes into the second period, deflating the crowd at Nationwide Arena.

"At the end of the second period, I told them, 'Let's not have any regrets,'" MacTavish said. "And we are sitting on a mountain of regrets right now."

However, Umberger got the Blue Jackets within 4-3 at 3:50 of the third with his fourth goal in three games, and Modin scored 56 seconds later to knot the contest.

"To be honest with you, this is our team," Hitchcock said. "When you play young, skilled players, you're going to go through peaks and valleys during a 60-minute contest. We're going to be an entertaining team all year because we can score goals and create offense. We're going to make mistakes because we have youthful enthusiasm, and young guys are going to make mistakes."

With time winding down, Torres - who had just finished serving a penalty - received a pass from captain Rick Nash in the right faceoff circle and unleashed a shot that was stopped by Dwayne Roloson. Continuing to skate toward the crease, Torres chipped the rebound over the sprawled goaltender, and Malhotra poked it into the net for his first goal of the campaign.

"Rick made a great pass back," said Malhotra, who last scored a game-winning goal on November 4, 2007. "Raffi got a great shot on net, which I thought was initially in, and I just scored on the rebound there."

Starting in place of Fredrik Norrena, who is nursing a sore groin, Mason made it stand, stopping defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky's slap shot in the final minute before Commodore and Malhotra blocked two other attempts by the Oilers in the waning moments.

"At a stoppage in play, I looked up and saw there was 1:19 on the board," Mason said. "That was probably the longest 1:19 of my life, and one of our defensemen broke his stick, and that made it a little more difficult to clear the pucks. But the guys did a great job blocking shots that final minute, and that definitely preserved the win."

With Columbus on a power play, Huselius unleashed a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot that sneaked inside the left goalpost with 85 seconds remaining in the first period for a 1-0 lead. Named the NHL Rookie of the Month for October on Tuesday, Brassard doubled the advantage at 2:31 of the second, beating Roloson to the glove side with a wrister from the slot.

"Derick and Jake (Voracek) have been stellar doing their job, getting points, being strong offensively," Malhotra said. "I think that says a lot for our youngsters and the future of this team."

Edmonton took over from there. After Cogliano tallied with the man advantage at 5:53, Fernando Pisani muscled Voracek off the puck behind the Blue Jackets' net and backhanded a pass to Moreau, who fired it into the top left corner with 3:32 remaining for a shorthanded goal.

"It was a great play by Fernando to take the puck away from their guy, and he put the puck on my tape," Moreau said. "All I had to do was finish the play and score. It was a big goal."

It was the league-leading fifth shorthander allowed this season by Columbus, which surrendered a total of five in 2007-08.

Hemsky scored his third goal in two games just 47 seconds into the third to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead, beating Mason high to the glove side from the left faceoff dot, and Brodziak buried a backhander from the doorstep at 2:07 for a two-goal bulge.

"Up 4-2, no way we should have lost that game," Moreau said. "We should not have put ourselves in that situation to lose. When you are up two goals late, you have to finish the deal and win the game."

Umberger closed the gap when he backhanded in a loose puck in front and Modin forged a 4-4 tie less than a minute later with his first goal of the campaign.