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Zherdev powers Blue Jackets past Blues

Jan 12, 2008 - 5:20 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Nikolai Zherdev and the Columbus Blue Jackets got some revenge and put an end to the St. Louis Blues' points streak.

Zherdev scored twice in a four-minute span late in the third period to lead the Blue Jackets to a 6-4 victory over the Blues on Friday.

St. Louis, which had registered a point in six straight games, rallied from a two-goal deficit as Andy McDonald tied the contest at 3-3 early in the third period.

It remained even until Zherdev skated through the defense, backhanded the puck between his legs and fired a wrist shot from the top of the slot that beat goaltender Hannu Toivonen between the pads for a 4-3 lead with 5:57 to play.

"He was OK at the start and really good at the end," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We got a lot of good performances from people we needed to get them from if we were going to move ahead here, so it was good."

Zherdev did not talk to the media after the game, but his play spoke volumes.

"That's what he does - he changes games around," Columbus' Jason Chimera said. "He's one of those superstars in this league right now. When he gets the puck, the other team starts to back off."

Pascal Leclaire stopped 26 shots for Columbus, which avenged a 6-1 loss to St. Louis on Tuesday.

"Tonight was a huge effort," Leclaire said. "After what happened earlier this week in St. Louis, we were pretty sour about it, and the guys came out pretty hard. We played a great hockey game tonight."

Zherdev missed two days of practice after taking a hit from David Backes in Tuesday's loss.

"I don't know if any of the players knew if he was going or not until this morning," Chimera said. "He looked good. I totally forgot he was hurt until he told me about it. He was at his best tonight, that's for sure."

Dan Fritsche doubled the advantage by firing a shot from the left faceoff circle past Toivonen just 78 seconds later. Zherdev added insurance by scoring a power-play goal on a breakaway with 1:57 remaining.

"I have to make those saves," Toivonen said. "You can't win in this league if you don't produce, myself included. You have to make the saves. You can't win in this league if you don't."

"It was a 3-3 hockey game in the third and we ended up giving up six goals. It wasn't good," St. Louis coach Andy Murray said. "We just had a number of players that didn't play as well as we needed them to tonight."

The Blues opened the scoring as Backes notched his sixth goal of the season at 7:54 of the first period.

But All-Star Rick Nash and defenseman Ron Hainsey scored less than 5 1/2 minutes apart to give the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead with 2:39 left in the first.

After Chimera increased the advantage to two eight minutes into the middle session, Brad Boyes halved the deficit with his team-leading 24th tally, firing a slap shot from the right circle past Leclaire during a power play with 2:01 remaining in the period.

The Blues tied it just 3:33 into the third, when McDonald put a shot from the slot under Leclaire's arm.

Jay McClement tallied in the final minute and Toivonen stopped 31 shots for St. Louis, which went 1-for-6 on the power play.