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Steen, power play help Blues end slide

Jan 4, 2009 - 7:14 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Alex Steen and the St. Louis Blues' power-play unit did their best to prove Steve Mason human and cool down the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets.

Steen scored a goal and set up two others as the Blues halted a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 5-2 triumph over the Blue Jackets.

B.J. Crombeen notched a tally and an assist while Brad Winchester, Keith Tkachuk and T.J. Oshie also scored for the Blues, who had dropped five of their previous six games.

"We moved the puck well and we transitioned well," Steen said. "We need to use this as a building block and do this every night, especially in the situation we're in and how important another point is."

Steen's three-point effort was his best since being acquired from Toronto on November 24.

"Alex, once he got over his first six games where he was just OK, he has been pretty good," Blues coach Andy Murray said.

Fredrik Modin recorded a goal and set up another, defenseman Mike Commodore scored for the second time in as many nights and captain Rick Nash collected a pair of assists for Columbus, which had its four-game winning streak halted.

Winchester got the power play going early for St. Louis, which went 4-for-9 with the man advantage. Standing at the right side of the net, Winchester converted a pass from the left faceoff circle by Brad Boyes at 2:10 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.

"They had skilled players who really outworked our penalty-killers, and their PK didn't let us have much of a look at anything tonight," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Less than four minutes later, the Blues cashed in during a power play for the Blue Jackets to double the advantage, as Crombeen received a pass from behind the net by Yan Stastny and beat Mason from the doorstep with a backhander at 5:41.

"It's pretty good to go out and do what we did against a guy with the career (Mason) is going to have in this league," said Blues netminder Manny Legace, who made 20 saves. "The first four or five minutes, we wound it up really well, and needed to because their goalie has been unbelievable."

"We had really good body position in front of the net," Murray added. "(Mason) is going to stop most things he sees. We had good traffic in front."

Columbus rallied to tie the game at 2-2 midway through the first, but Tkachuk buried the rebound of defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo's slap shot from above the slot during a power play at 6:39 of the middle session to put St. Louis ahead for good.

"It was a little depressing between the first and second periods," Legace said of allowing the Blue Jackets to pull even. "(Their second goal) hit right in the web and popped straight back out."

Oshie put a wrist shot from the left circle under the crossbar at 7:59 of the third for the Blues' third power-play goal of the night, and Steen knocked in a rebound during a 5-on-3 advantage with 32 seconds remaining to complete the scoring.

"We wanted to test (Mason), get a lot of shots and try to move him as much as possible and not let him get comfortable," Steen said. "I thought we did a good job of that. Now we need to do this against every goalie we face."

"It's great to see the young guys move the puck around and work hard, especially on the power play," Boyes said. "Winnie made a heck of a play on that first goal, T.J. had a great finish and everybody just seemed to do something."

Mason, who had allowed a total of just one goal in his previous four games, yielded five on 27 shots in this one.

"I just wasn't very good, not very good at all," the 20-year-old Mason said. "I was giving up rebounds, a couple of five-hole goals. So it wasn't a very good game. Four really good games doesn't excuse one really bad one, and it was."

"Steve has been so good in goal, and he knows he still has to deliver for us," Hitchcock said. "A couple of (the goals) weren't too good. But that said, we need more than a hot goaltender to be successful on the road, and falling behind in a hurry makes you have to do other things."