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Nash propels Blue Jackets past Blues

Feb 19, 2009 - 3:54 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- All-Star Rick Nash netted his team-leading 24th goal of the season and added an assist as the Columbus Blue Jackets posted a 4-3 triumph over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday in a battle of Central Division rivals.

Defenseman Fedor Tyutin and Manny Malhotra also both scored and set up a goal and Andrew Murray also tallied for Columbus, which improved to 5-0-1 in its last six games.

Rookie Steve Mason turned aside 21 shots for the Blue Jackets.

"He's the unsung hero of the hockey club," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said of Tyutin. "His play has been outstanding for over a month now. I love the way he's playing right now. He's playing so well with and without the puck, and he's got unbelievable confidence."

Alexander Steen netted a shorthanded goal and an assist and Brad Winchester and rookie T.J. Oshie also scored for St. Louis, which was unsuccessful in its bid to present coach Andy Murray his 300th career win.

"I don't know if it's desperation, it's just not playing smart," Murray said of his team's play.

"We give up a power-play goal on a poor call by the official, give up that first goal; we just didn't respond the way that we needed to respond after that little bit of adversity."

Chris Mason finished with 14 saves in two periods before giving way to Chris Holt, who stopped all three shots he faced in the third.

Tyutin opened the scoring 75 seconds into the contest with a power-play goal and Malhotra doubled the advantage with 2:08 remaining in the first period after tucking the puck past Chris Mason.

"It's always nice to score, and as long as you are contributing in other ways and being strong in whatever the team asks you to do," Malhotra said.

"Playing with Rick (Nash) and Juice (Kristian Huselius), obviously the points are just going to come with such offensively gifted players. But for me, to continue to be strong defensively and be a sound player for this team and whenever the offense comes, it's a bonus."

Murray was not amused.

"I think they only had five shots," he said. "It was played a lot in the neutral zone. W e didn't start the way that we wanted. That's certainly two games in a row, if you count the New York Rangers game (a 2-1 win on Monday) as well, we didn't get the start we wanted."

After Winchester cut the deficit in half 3 1/2 minutes into the second, Nash regained the two-goal advantage just 25 seconds later after redirecting the puck on the doorstep.

"It was a great play by (defenseman Christian Backman) and Manny (Malhotra) to get the play started," Nash said. "Christian carried the puck in and Manny made a great pass, and all I had to do was tap it in."

Murray gave Columbus a three-goal advantage with 2:52 remaining in the session before Steen and Oshie scored nearly 10 minutes apart in the third period to trim the deficit to one.

"The third period is why I don't like coaching. We played the score not the game," Hitchcock said.

"St Louis has no quit in their team. Win or lose, they play right until the end of the game. We got casual. We put ourselves on our heels."