Early blitz carries Blues to 4-1 win over Jackets

Barret Jackman, Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Tarasenko each scored in the opening 14 minutes, Brian Elliott made 24 saves and the Blues won their fourth straight game with a 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

David Backes, who also had an assist, added an empty-netter. T.J. Oshie had two assists.

True to its Blue-collar form, St. Louis had four different goal-scorers, 11 different players score a point and just about everybody else contributed one way or another in a fight-filled match.

"That's what our whole team is about," said Jackman, who got into one fight to go with his goal. "We're not a team that relies on three or six guys. It's going to be a team effort every night. Some guys put the puck in the net one night and it's going to be picked up by other guys another night."

The Blues took command and locked up the two points before a crowd of 11,155 could settle into its seats.

Just 2:19 in, Jackman almost lackadaisically wristed the puck on net from the boards near the blue line. It sailed past Jamie Langenbrunner and defenseman Tim Erixon, playing his first game for the Blue Jackets, who were tangled near the left hash. It continued on past a surprised Sergei Bobrovsky for Jackman's second of the year.

It was the third time that Bobrovsky, who has been solid in net most of this young season, has been victimized for a soft goal in the first minutes of the game.

Brandon Dubinsky, a newcomer to Columbus who arrived in the blockbuster deal that sent Rick Nash to the New York Rangers last summer, was angry with the way the Blue Jackets played.

"We didn't come out and play hard enough," Dubinsky said. "That's been a theme the whole year so far. We've got to come out with some fire, with some passion. And we didn't again tonight."

And still St. Louis wasn't done.

The Blues went on a power play at the 10:06 mark when Vinny Prospal was called for a high stick — and 17 seconds later the puck was in the net again. This time Berglund took a drop pass from Oshie and rocketed a hard shot from the top of the left circle for his fourth of the season.