With apologies to the Ohio State Buckeyes, Columbus officially made its big-league sports debut Saturday night.
For the first 26 minutes, the city’s NHL expansion team played like it was bent on capturing the Stanley Cup.
Then the Blackhawks spoiled the fun.
Rallying from a three-goal opening-period deficit, the Hawks gave Alpo Suhonen his first NHL coaching victory by putting down the Blue Jackets 5-3.
Reto Von Arx, the rookie from Switzerland, was the key player in the come-from-behind victory, scoring the first Hawks goal at 6 minutes 10 seconds of the second period and the go-ahead goal with 2:32 elapsed in the third.
Captain Tony Amonte also scored in the second and third periods and Alex Zhamnov contributed a second-period goal as the Hawks evened their record at 1-1.
Plugged into a high-voltage Nationwide Arena sellout crowd of 18,136, the Blue Jackets shocked the Hawks by scoring in rapid succession. All three came from short range at the expense of Jocelyn Thibault, thanks to the Hawks’ inability to prevent penetration and clear rebounds.
Bruce Gardiner got the first Columbus goal at 7:34, Dave Vborny the second 26 seconds later and Steve Heinze the third, putting the Hawks in a 3-0 hole with the game only 9:20 old.
“Most important was the guys . . . showed they can come back,” Suhonen said. “We had a bleak couple minutes. We were soft in the corners and in front of the net.”
Thibault said the early surge by Columbus didn’t jolt his confidence.
“I didn’t feel shaky at all,” he explained. “If I could play those goals again, I’d do it the same way. On those goals, they had some luck.
“We have the power to score three or four every night. We just have to be careful in our end.”
