Minnesota ruins Blue Jackets’ party for 1st playoff berth

April 12, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS — Marian Gaborik had two goals and an assist to lead the Minnesota Wild past Columbus 6-3 on Saturday night, ruining the Blue Jackets’ celebration for their first playoff berth.

Kurtis Foster and Mikko Koivu each added a goal and an assist, and Marc-Andre Bergeron and Martin Skoula also scored for the Wild, eliminated from the postseason picture on Friday night.

The Blue Jackets, who clinched their first postseason trip in their eight NHL seasons on Wednesday, entered the night in sixth place in the Western Conference.

Rick Nash, Jared Boll and Derek Dorsett had goals for Columbus, which led 2-0 after the opening 6 minutes.

Gaborik, who missed most of the season following hip surgery, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and is likely to leave the only NHL team for which he has played.

With the Blue Jackets up 2-0 after a period — and about to celebrate locking up that No. 6 seed in the playoffs — the Wild ruined the party with three goals in 8:46.

Foster scored his first of the season on a fluke play. Foster dumped the puck into the Columbus zone but it hit the right skate of Blue Jackets center Manny Malhotra and ricocheted past surprised goalie Steve Mason.

The Wild tied it with a short-handed goal. Eric Belanger poked the puck away from a Blue Jackets defenseman and led a 2-on-0 rush, dropping a backward pass in the slot for Gaborik, who scored his 12th goal in his 17th game. Gaborik has six goals and five assists in a seven-game point streak.

With the teams skating 4-on-4, Foster tossed another puck at the net that Skoula redirected for a stunning 3-2 Minnesota turnaround.

The Wild built the lead to 5-2 on Gaborik’s second goal off a nifty setup pass from Koivu. Bergeron’s one-timer on the power play stretched the lead.

After Dorsett scored on a breakaway, Koivu added a short-handed, empty-netter.

After the standing-room-only home crowd of 19,013 — the second-largest announced NHL crowd at Nationwide Arena — greeted the Blue Jackets with a standing ovation when they came onto the ice, it took just 1 minute for Nash to register his 40th goal. His wrister from the high slot eluded goaltender Josh Harding, whose view may have been blocked by Wild defenseman John Scott.

Harding allowed a soft goal 5 minutes later. Boll spotted the loose puck near the boards at the edge of the right circle and took a whack at it — and it somehow got through for his fourth goal.

Mason then made three stellar saves. He thwarted Bergeron on a hard slapper from the left point and then blocked Peter Olvecky’s shot off the rebound. Later, he blocked a wicked redirect off the stick of Belanger.