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Havlat, Blackhawks spoil day for Norrena

Feb 12, 2007 - 2:11 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Hours after signing a multi-year contract, Fredrik Norrena had his day spoiled by Martin Havlat and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Havlat scored the goal that sent Norrena to the bench in the first period and added a pair of assists to lead the Blackhawks to a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Earlier in the day, the Blue Jackets announced the signing of Norrena to a multi-year contract. But the Finnish goalie was yanked by coach Ken Hitchcock after yielding three goals in 12:38.

"I'm happy about the contract, but I don't have an explanation for how we played today," Norrena said. "We can't say we're tired. We had three days to get ready for this game. Three days. It's not like we just got back off a plane from Vancouver."

Patrick Sharp got it started for the Blackhawks nine minutes into the game when he fired a rebound from the bottom of the right circle past Norrena's glove

After Columbus defenseman Ron Hainsey was penalized for interference, the Blackhawks cashed in with a power-play goal. Tuomo Ruutu backhanded a pass from behind the net in front to Bryan Smolinski, who snapped a shot from between the faceoff circles past Norrena with 9:58 left in the period.

Havlat then ended the day for Norrena with a superb individual effort. The All-Star right wing fought off a hook by Rostislav Klesla, skated to the net and suddenly stopped at the left of the goal before steering the puck past Norrena with 7:22 left in the period.

The goal was the seventh in the last six games for Havlat, who also assisted on a goal by Peter Bondra in the third period.

"I am just trying to do the same thing every night, playing hard and trying to help the team win," said Havlat, who was acquired with Smolinski from Ottawa last summer. "I feel good. I am playing the best hockey I have played in a while but that is my goal to play better hockey than I did last year."

Pascal Leclaire, who had missed the last 21 games following knee surgery, replaced Norrena and stopped 17 of 19 shots.

The Blue Jackets nearly rallied from a 5-2 deficit.

Alexander Svitov scored with 10:42 left in the third period and David Vyborny beat Nikolai Khabibulin with a shot from the right circle with 3:58 remaining to pull Columbus within a goal.

Vyborny almost tied the game with just under two minutes remaining, but had his shot from the high slot stopped by Khabibulin.

"We seemed to relax a little bit at the end and they jumped on us and capitalized on their chances," Khabibulin said. "For whatever reason we can't seem to have an easy game, whether it's our inexperience, I don't know. When you are up 5-2 with a couple of minutes to go, you just can't have this happen."

The Blackhawks improved to 4-2-0 on a seven-game trip that ends in Pittsburgh on Wednesday

Chicago outshot the Blue Jackets, 15-3, in the first period when it built a 3-0 lead.

"We started very poorly again," Hitchcock said. "We have some obvious competitive issues that we have to deal with. Individually, it's obvious. I don't think we need to come in and say 'Gee, we had a tough first period, but did we ever get going.' We're going to have to deal with these issues."

Hainsey scored when Columbus had a two-man advantage, one-timing a shot from the right point off a pass by Rick Nash 3:23 into the second period.

Martin Lapointe beat Leclaire with a wrist shot from the left circle on a 2-on-1 break just 1:24 later to restore Chicago's three-goal lead.

Anson Carter scored another power-play goal for the Blue Jackets with 1:37 left in the second period, jamming a shot from the left of the net after a nifty pass across the crease by Vyborny.

Bondra scored his fifth goal in 13 games with the Blackhawks and the 503rd of his career, firing in a rebound of a shot by Havlat 3:14 into the third period.