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Nash stars as Blue Jackets rout Blackhawks

Sep 30, 2008 - 2:27 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Captain Rick Nash scored two goals and set up two others as the Columbus Blue Jackets rolled to a 7-1 preseason victory Monday over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Kristian Huselius and defensemen Rostislav Klesla and Fedor Tyutin each added a goal and two assists for the Blue Jackets, who totaled just nine tallies in their first four exhibition contests.

Blue-liner Christian Backman, who also had an assist, snapped a scoreless tie at 7:28 of the second period with a slap shot from the left faceoff circle during a 5-on-3 power play, and Nash doubled the lead 54 seconds later with a man-advantage goal. Raffi Torres made it 3-0 just 23 seconds afterward, and Huselius increased the lead to 4-0 just over two minutes later.

Acquired from Edmonton over the summer, Torres was playing for the first time since suffering a torn ACL on December 12. However, the 26-year-old former first-round pick of the New York Islanders separated his shoulder late in the second period of this contest and is expected to miss six weeks.

Nash and Tyutin, who along with Backman was obtained in an offseason trade with the New York Rangers, added tallies in the third before Petri Kontiola got Chicago on the scoreboard with a power-play goal midway through the period. Klesla capped the scoring during a man advantage with 3:32 remaining.

Pascal Leclaire made 22 saves for Columbus, which went 3-for-6 on the power play.

Hours after placing Nikolai Khabibulin on waivers, the Blackhawks saw Cristobal Huet yield all seven goals on just 22 shots. Huet was signed to a four-year, $22.54 million contract in July.