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Carter, Nash lead Blue Jackets over Canucks

Dec 23, 2006 - 5:01 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Anson Carter and Rick Nash did their parts to help the Columbus Blue Jackets continue their improved play.

Carter scored a goal and added an assist while Nash scored the deciding goal to help lift the Blue Jackets to a 3-2 victory over the struggling Vancouver Canucks.

The Blue Jackets, who rebounded from a 5-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, improved to 7-3-1 in their last 11 games. The Canucks fell to 0-6-0 in their last six on the road and have been outscored, 25-8.

"No one wants to spend Christmas Eve after a loss," Carter said. "We had a great effort tonight and showed a lot of poise and composure. The last game was an aberration. That's not how we play. We knew Detroit was going to be ready. They are solid on their power play and that's what did us in. Tonight we were ready to battle."

"There was a lack of discipline," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said of his club's effort. "They had five power-play opportunities in the first period. I have never seen a team get called three times for too many men. Obviously we didn't help ourselves. We had three games in four nights. It is one thing to say you want to be in the playoffs, but we need to step it up."

Columbus improved to 8-5-1 since Ken Hitchcock took over as coach on November 23. Carter gave the Blue Jackets a 2-0 lead at 11:51 of the first period when he poked a rebound from down low over Roberto Luongo's shoulder.

Carter, who had 33 goals in 81 games with the Canucks last season, needs two more to reach 200 for his career.

Nash netted the decisive tally at 14:39 of the third period when he skated in on a 2-on-1 with Sergei Fedorov, faked a pass to him and blasted a shot from the right faceoff dot between Luongo's pads for a 3-1 lead.

"It's nice to score on the best goalies," Nash said of his goal. "It was an all around great play by Sergei on the wall to chip it out and then Duvie (Westcott) going to the net. He (Luongo) just opened up the five-hole, a little bit of luck, but the goal meant a lot."

"It was a 2-on-1, and he (Nash) had a lot of patience there and got me five-hole, but I should have made that stop," Luongo said. "It was a key point in the game."

Nash has seven goals and six assists in his last nine games.

After Daniel Sedin pulled the Canucks to within 3-2 with 1:15 left in the third period, Vancouver swarmed the Columbus net but could not get the equalizer.

Aaron Johnson also scored for the Blue Jackets, while Kevin Bieksa had the other Canucks goal.

"It's been a while," Johnson said of his first goal of the season in 26 games. "It's funny to finally get that big goal. I was kind of snakebitten there for a bit."