Jackets make a statement in win over Flames

Blue Jackets Hockey

Jackets errors lead to Blues sweep (3/29/09)
by Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired, Photos by Dave Weissman

St. Louis completed a two-game sweep of the Columbus Blue Jackets Sunday by taking advantage of the home team’s follies. The Blues defeated the Blue Jackets 5-2 in front of 17,095 in Nationwide Arena by intercepting a pass by goaltender Steve Mason and scoring two more goals on turnovers by Columbus defensemen.

“We were careless,” Jackets captain Rick Nash, who had a goal and an assist, said. “This late in the season, it’s important to get pucks deep, get pucks out of you blue line and get pucks in their blue line and tonight that wasn’t the case.”

If the Blue Jackets intend to extend their season into the playoffs, they will have to improve on their 8-9-2 record against the Central Division. Columbus plays home-and-home series with Nashville and Chicago before ending the season with another game at St. Louis then Minnesota at home in the season-finale.

“We’ve got to improve that,” Michel Peca said. “That was something we really wanted to improve on from last year. We can’t look at our record to date in our division. We just got to go out a game at a time and put in a little bit more effort.”

Patrik Berglund had a goal and an assist to lead the Blues, while T.J. Oshie and David Perron each had a goal and an assist. Brad Boyes and David Backes also scored for St. Louis, who is 7-3-1 in their last 10 games.

The Blues moved into eighth place in the Western Conference by taking four points from the Jackets this weekend. St. Louis beat the Jackets 4-3 in a shootout Saturday in the Scottrade Center.

“A good weekend for us,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “We did a good job forechecking (tonight). Their defense expected us to come hard. We wanted to put some pressure on them and when you do that, you create chances.”

Fedor Tyutin also scored for Columbus, who had a five-game points streak broken. Steve Mason gave up five goals on 27 shots.

St. Louis took advantage of a Columbus turnover in the neutral zone to take an early 1-0 lead. Oshie stole the puck on the errant pass and drove to the crease. He put a shot on Steve Mason, who made the initial save, and tapped in the rebound at 5:02.

The Jackets tied the game on the power play early in the second period. Tyutin scored his ninth of the season with a slap shot from the blue line that skipped over the glove of Blues’ goaltender Chris Mason.

The Blues regained the lead off a blunder from Steve Mason. The rookie came out of the crease to play the puck behind the net and passed it right to the stick of Boyes, who tapped it into the empty net from the center of the crease.

“That second goal rattled Mason a little bit,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “You don’t want a goalie going up the middle. That’s a smart player (Boyes) that picked that off.”

Perron gave the Blues a two-goal lead with a backhand shot over the right shoulder of Steve Mason at 8:33 of the third.

Berglund scored on a wrap-a-round at 13:55. Nash answered 74 seconds later with a slapshot that bounced off the crossbar and in to cut the St. Louis lead to 4-2.

Backes picked up a loose puck off a Tyutin turnover and beat Steve Mason at 16:17. St. Louis scored three goals on six shots in the third period.

“Give (St. Louis) credit, they are playing committed and everybody is on the same page,” Hitchcock said. “We were in it for a little while. The game is 2-1 going into the third period and we’re in good shape and then we turn it over. They pushed us in areas where we were uncomfortable. We had too many people that did not respond.”

The Jackets, who outshot the Blues 28-27, host Nashville Tuesday at 7 p.m.