Blues suffer 8th straight road defeat

~ St. Louis lost 4-1 to the Blue Jackets.

COLUMBUS, Ohio --Pascal Leclaire is learning how to win, just like the rest of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Leclaire stopped 26 shots and four players scored goals to lead the Blue Jackets to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night, handing the Blues their eighth straight road loss.

"I saw a lot of clean shots tonight," Leclaire said. "The guys did a great job. And when they [the Blues] came inside we had great balance in front of the net, so it was a really well-played game."

Sergei Fedorov, Mark Hartigan, Aaron Johnson and Manny Malhotra had goals for the Blue Jackets, who ended a three-game losing skid that came on the heels of a franchise-best six-game winning streak.

Rostislav Klesla had two assists for Columbus, which now has 70 points -- one fewer than the franchise high during its inaugural 2000-01 season. Fedorov also had an assist.

Leclaire, the eighth player taken in the opening round of the 2001 draft, has won four of his last five starts.

"We wanted to come out really strong," Leclaire said. "Our last game in Dallas, we started playing in the third period and we almost came back."

The Blues continue to have trouble scoring. Jamal Mayers had a goal, giving the Blues just five goals in their last five games.

"We did a good job with the forwards collapsing down low," right wing Lee Stempniak said. "But we're not going to win many games scoring one goal."

St. Louis has won one of its last 16 games.

"We've got a lot of young kids that have to learn how to have a killer instinct when they have a chance on the net," coach Mike Kitchen said.