Blues start road trip with 4-2 loss

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Rick Nash scored for his 400th career point and Chris Clark notched his first goal as a Blue Jacket, leading Columbus to a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

Nash's power-play goal 4:20 into the second period gave the Blue Jackets, who ended a three-game losing skid, a 3-2 lead. Clark, acquired from Washington in a Dec. 28 trade, scored on a jam shot early in the third period.

Raffi Torres added two goals and Mathieu Roy had two assists -- the first multipoint game of his career. The Blue Jackets improved to 19-3-2 when Torres scores.

Mathieu Garon had 30 saves to run his record against the Blues to 9-3-0.

Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya had goals for the Blues, who had their season-best four-game winning streak end.

Blues defenseman Mike Weaver, left, checks Blue Jackets right wing Derek Dorsett during the second period.

Garon was injured in the morning skate when a puck hit him in the wrist; his availability for the game was in question. He had been pulled after giving up three goals on nine shots in a 4-1 loss at St. Louis six days earlier.

After Columbus took a 2-1 lead into the second period on Torres' goals, Tkachuk tied it when he crashed the net and slammed into Garon, with the puck going off the glove of sliding defenseman Kris Russell and into the net.

Nash then made it 3-2 through two periods when he beat Chris Mason on a quick wrister from a hard angle near the bottom of the right circle.

Just 1:25 into the third period, Clark was able to get his stick around a defenseman to jam in a pass from Kristian Huselius, who had skated wide of the goal after his shot was stopped by Mason.

The Blues, starting a three-game road trip, didn't waste time in taking the lead.

Just 1:11 in, Kariya settled the puck near the blue line and ripped a hard slap shot that eluded Garon on the stick side for his ninth of the season.

It was the third game in a row in which the Blue Jackets gave up the first goal within the first two-and-a-half minutes.

This time, however, they answered. Torres scored after getting a long stretch pass from Russell. Torres battled for control just inside the blue line, then was able to collect the puck and get off a shot from the high slot.

Midway through the period, Derick Brassard had the puck in the left corner and lost and regained it twice before his shot was deflected by defenseman Mike Weaver. The puck went directly to Torres, alone at the far post, who jammed it in for his 16th of the season.