Blue Jackets' hot goalie blanks Blues

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Pascal Leclaire stopped 21 shots for his NHL-best fifth shutout of the season and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues 3-0 on Sunday night.

Manny Malhotra, Rick Nash and Jason Chimera had goals for the Blue Jackets (8-3-2), who are off to the best start in the franchise's seven seasons.

Leclaire came into the year with one shutout in 59 career games, but has five in nine starts this season -- tying a Columbus season record.

The Blue Jackets, the only team to never appear in the playoffs, are 5-0-1 in their last six games. They are tied for second place in the Western Conference.

The Blues have been shut out twice this year, both times by Leclaire.

The Blues had the game's first two shots, but didn't have another over the final 15:46 of the opening period. Columbus had the last 12 shots of the period.

St. Louis turned things around in the second, holding the Blue Jackets to one shot over the first 15 minutes. At the same time, the Blues had three power plays including almost a minute with a two-man advantage.

Leclaire stopped Keith Tkachuk on a mini-breakaway, then made two sterling saves on the two-man disadvantage, blocking a hard shot by Martin Rucinsky and gloving a laser of a one-timer by Paul Kariya from the left circle.

Nikolai Zherdev carried the puck to the blue line and then flipped a high, backhanded pass that Nash caught at the right circle. He dropped the puck, settled it, waited while two Blues slid out of his way and then rocketed a low shot inside the far post for his 10th of the year.

Chimera's goal came on a shot from the left point in the third period.

Notes: Columbus C Sergei Fedorov extended his points streak to

four games with an assist on Malhotra's goal. ... Tkachuck and Kariya had four-game points streaks end. ... It was the first time St. Louis lost consecutive games this season. ... Foote had two assists for the first time since March 24, 2006, against Calgary.