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Coyotes-Blue Jackets Preview

Oct 27, 2009 - 9:17 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Phoenix (6-4-0) at Columbus (6-4-0), 7:00 p.m. EDT

After a road-heavy stretch to open their season concluded with a dismal road trip, the Columbus Blue Jackets are very happy to be home.

They will try to remain perfect at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night as Steve Mason looks to improve his play when the Blue Jackets meet the Phoenix Coyotes.

Columbus (6-4-0) finished a 1-3-0 trip with a 6-2 loss to Los Angeles on Sunday. The Blue Jackets played seven of their first 10 games in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.

The Blue Jackets allowed 22 goals on the trip, and Mason went 1-2 with a 5.33 goals-against average in three starts.

"I think we have a problem defending, we're not very good at defending right now," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's something that we're going to have a lot of time on. Right now, we're really playing poorly in our own zone."

Mason is 5-3 with a 3.51 GAA this season after winning the Calder Trophy in 2008-09, going 33-20 with a 2.29 GAA. He won all three Blue Jackets home games, posting a 1.00 GAA.

Hitchcock didn't place all of the blame for the poor trip on his young goaltender, running his club through a physical practice Tuesday.

"We're just not competing down lower," left wing Jason Chimera said. "We're getting enough scoring chances to win hockey games, but we can't give up those chances or else the puck ends up in the back of our net. We're not doing enough defensively to stop those guys."

Chimera was sent somersaulting face-first into the ice on a hip check from the Kings' Rob Scuderi on Sunday. Teammate Derek Dorsett came off the bench to go after Scuderi and received a game misconduct, and Chimera returned after serving a 10-minute misconduct.

Columbus lost all four meetings with Phoenix (6-4-0) last season, but spoiled the Coyotes' home opener with a 2-0 win Oct. 10. Backup Mathieu Garon made 36 saves for the Blue Jackets.

Mason will start Wednesday. He is 0-3 with a 3.07 GAA in three career starts against the Coyotes.

Phoenix has lost consecutive games, falling 5-2 to the New York Rangers on Monday. The Coyotes allowed five goals in their first four road games, but New York took a 4-0 lead in the first 28 minutes.

"We've got to go back and work at it," defenseman Ed Jovanovski said. "We don't want to lose three in a row."

The Coyotes allowed 10 goals in their last two contests and five on the power play. New York scored twice with the man advantage Monday.

"It's tough anywhere you fall behind 4-0," Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. "We're not going to win games when we do that. Our power play really let us down. They got two, we didn't get any on ours."

Doan has three goals and five assists during a five-game point streak.