Jake Voracek scored on two breakaways to chase red-hot goalie Jaroslav Halak and the Columbus Blue Jackets scored early and often to beat St. Louis 8-1 on Wednesday night, ending the Blues' winning streak at seven games.
It was a rare outburst for the Blue Jackets, the only team in the NHL this season that had not scored more than three goals this season. The eight goals tied a club record, and the margin was the largest in the franchise's 10 seasons.
The rout also was a rare collapse by the Blues, who had allowed just four goals in their last six games.
Chris Clark also had two goals and Rick Nash, R.J. Umberger and Antoine Vermette each added a goal and an assist for Columbus, which has won eight of 11. Derick Brassard added a career-high three assists and Kyle Wilson and Nikita Filatov each had a career-best two helpers. Samuel Pahlsson also had two assists and Jared Boll had a goal.
Steve Mason made 29 saves, allowing only B.J. Crombeen's goal.
A few short weeks after being booed off the ice after an embarrassing 5-2 loss to Chicago in the home opener, the Blue Jackets received standing ovations at the end of each period from a crowd of 10,265.
The Blue Jackets had three goals in the opening 17 minutes against Halak, who had three shutouts in his last five starts and a 6-1-1 record overall.
Columbus took the first five shots and grabbed the lead when Nash followed a backcheck by stealing a pass and setting in motion Voracek's first breakaway.
Midway through the period, Boll raced around the Blues' Tyson Strachan for a loose puck in the offensive zone and then almost nonchalantly flipped a backhander from a hard angle past defenseman Nathan Oystrick that appeared to surprise Halak, the puck bouncing off his left skate and ricocheting into the net.
Halak was being pelted by pucks late in the period when he made a sterling stop on Marc Methot's point-blank attempt. While the crowd was still oohing and ahhing about the save, Brassard collected the puck at the back wall and fed Nash for a quick one-timer in the slot to make it 3-0.
Voracek then added to the lead - and ended Halak's night - when he scored on another solo rush early in the second period that was almost a carbon copy of his earlier goal. Ty Conklin came on for Halak, who gave up four goals on 15 shots.
After Crombeen spoiled Mason's shutout, the Blue Jackets added two more goals on Clark's nifty 1-on-1 move from in close and Umberger's one-timer from the slot. Clark and Vermette then scored within 18 seconds in the third period.
The rest of the game was a continual series of fights and skirmishes as there were four game misconducts, four fighting majors and 11 minor penalties assessed.
