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Zherdev burns former team as Rangers top Blue Jackets

Oct 25, 2008 - 2:55 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Nikolai Zherdev recorded a goal and two assists against his former team as the New York Rangers recorded a 3-1 triumph over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.

Defenseman Daniel Girardi notched a goal and an assist and Brandon Dubinsky also tallied for the Rangers, who saw coach Tom Renney leave the game in the second period after being hit in the face by Blue Jackets defenseman Rostislav Klesla's stick while behind the bench.

"I feel pretty good," Renney said after the game. "I wasn't very good there for a while, but I feel good, ready to go. I was able to watch from the medical room. I was watching it. The guys did a good job."

Markus Naslund registered two assists and Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves as New York recorded its first victory in Columbus since February 12, 2001.

Jakub Voracek scored his team's lone goal and Pascal Leclaire turned aside 28 shots for the Blue Jackets, who went 0-for-6 on the power play.

The seventh overall pick of the 2007 draft, Voracek opened the scoring with 6:18 remaining in the first period, collecting his own rebound and slipping the puck just inside the right goalpost for his third goal of the season.

"I think it was a bit lucky," Voracek said. "I just shot the puck, went to the net and the rebound was right there, and I put it in."

From there, the Blue Jackets were unable to find any consistency and had difficulty sustaining offensive pressure.

"We had a good first period," Columbus captain Rick Nash said. "Then the second and third periods, we just weren't good enough."

"We really played a sound game in the first period," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Then we shot ourselves in the foot in the second period by taking those two offensive-zone penalties. That gave them the energy and impact to come back in the game. We created a lot of scoring chances early in the third period, but we couldn't finish one off."

After Girardi leveled the contest 8:33 into the second, Dubinsky gave the Rangers a 2-1 advantage just over 3 1/2 minutes later with a controversial tally.

Zherdev wristed a centering feed into the slot, and the puck caromed off Dubinsky's right skate and past Leclaire. Officials ruled Dubinsky did not use a distinctive kicking motion and credited him with his fourth goal of the campaign.

"The puck came in from (Zherdev) and just went off my skate and in," Dubinsky said. "It may have appeared that I kicked it, but that is not my call. They looked at it and counted the goal, and that's all that matters."

The slim margin held up until Zherdev backhanded a shot past Leclaire with 6:12 remaining in the third period.

"It's good the team won," Zherdev said. "I was just happy to score."

"When I came to the rink earlier in the afternoon, he was there and ready," Renney said of Zherdev. "He was looking at the ice surface by himself in solitude. I thought he was really zooming in on this one. He did a good job, he played well."