ST. LOUIS (AP) -It has been nearly a year since the St. Louis Blues have scored six goals in a game.
Andy McDonald scored two goals and had an assist to lead the Blues to a 6-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
"Once they do start going in," McDonald said. "Everyone starts getting momentum and starts feeling good. We had four lines contributing and we were very good in our own zone."
The Blues, who last scored six goals in a 6-2 win over Anaheim on Jan. 16, 2007, got another strong game from goalie Manny Legace. He hadn't allowed a goal in a team-record 187 minutes and 39 seconds before Rick Nash took a Joakim Lindstrom pass from the right side and beat Legace for his 22nd goal of the season.
"After the second period I was hoping to get the 200 (minutes) mark," Legace said. "But they are a great talented offensive team. It's just a credit to the defense the way the guys have been playing in front of me."
Nash's goal was the lone bright spot for Columbus.
"It was a tough one," Nash said. "We didn't give it our all. They outplayed us in every area."
David Backes scored the only goal of a relatively listless first period. Backes scored at 8:31 beating Columbus goalie Fredrik Norrena for his fifth goal of the season.
Norrena was starting in place of regular Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire, who was scratched with a viral infection. Two of Leclaire's NHL leading seven shutouts this season are against St. Louis. Norrena (6-10-3) made 25 saves on 31 shots in the loss.
McDonald gave the Blues a 2-0 lead midway through the second period. Defenseman Jay McKee flipped the puck out of his own zone to rookie David Perron. Perron stopped quickly in the left circle and set up a streaking McDonald who whistled a wrist shot past Norrena for his sixth goal. It was McDonald's first goal in his last five games. He also missed an additional four games with a pulled chest muscle.
McDonald scored his second goal of the night and seventh of the season just 1:25 into the third period on a slick pass from Brad Boyes. McDonald one-timed it past Norrena.
Keith Tkachuk and Perron put the game away with Tkachuck scoring his 10th goal of the season on the power play at 10:25 of the third period and Perron scoring 2 1/2 minutes later for his ninth goal to give the Blues a 5-1 lead.
Dan Hinote finished the scoring with just over a minute left.
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| The Columbus Blue Jackets' Rick Nash (61) and the St. Louis Blues' Andy McDonald (10) get tangled up along the boards during the first period on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008, in St. Louis. McDonald recorded two goals and an assist in the game. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) |
"We were beat," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They were better for 60 minutes. They were better in every period. We didn't have enough good players tonight."
Notes: Blue Jackets forward Curtis Glencross was placed on Injured Reserve with what team officials listed as flu-like symptoms. Glencross had missed the past three games before going on the IR. The Blue Jackets also activated forward David Vyborny off the IR and was in the lineup for tonight's game. Vyborny is the Blue Jackets' all-time leading scorer with 302 points.
