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(Sports Network) - Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash each scored in regulation and the shootout, helping the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Huselius, who had missed Columbus' last four games with an upper body injury, also recorded an assist. Antoine Vermette had two assists, as the Blue Jackets rebounded from a 9-1 loss to Detroit on Wednesday. They have won three of four overall. Mathieu Garon made 32 saves in the victory.
"Well, I think that's what we needed," Garon said. "As a team we worked hard, we dominated and we wanted to get back on track and that's what we did tonight."
Ryan Getzlaf had two assists for the Ducks to extend his streak of games with an assist to nine, setting a team record in the process. Bobby Ryan and Todd Marchant had the goals for Anaheim, which has dropped two in a row. Jean- Sebastien Giguere, playing in his first game since October 24, had 27 stops in the setback.
"We did a good job staying in this hockey game," Getzlaf said. "We were right there and had our chances. Unfortunately it didn't come out the way we wanted it to."
In the shootout, Huselius went first and snapped the puck past Giguere after weaving his way through the slot. Getzlaf then wristed his shot off the right post, and the second round was scoreless.
Nash then sealed the Blue Jackets' victory by beating Giguere with an interesting move. He skated through the slot on the right side, but appeared to lose an edge and approached the crease on his right skate, with his left leg lifted in the air.
Nash then crossed to the left side and lifted a wrister into the upper-left corner of the goal, ending the contest.
Anaheim got on the board first, as Getzlaf sent a cross-ice pass to the left circle for Ryan, who lifted a shot over Garon at 7:55. The helper extended Getzlaf's overall point streak to 10 contests.
With 1:34 left in the opening period, Huselius sent a long outlet pass through the neutral zone for Nash, who picked up the puck mid-stride, skated to the left circle and blasted a slapshot past Giguere.
"He gives you speed and skill and patience with the puck," Columbus head coach Ken Hitchcock said of Huselius. "He did a lot for [the first] line."
Marchant's second goal of the season came 1:45 into the middle frame to put the Ducks back on top, but a little more than three minutes later Huselius evened the game once more.
With the Blue Jackets on the power play, Vermette got the puck just to the right of the crease, drawing Giguere's attention. The forward then backhanded a pass to the left circle, and Huselius wristed a high shot into the net at 5:15.
In overtime, Anaheim went on a power play with 2:21 left after the Blue Jackets were whistled for having too many men on the ice. But the Ducks' Ryan Whitney was called for boarding with 51.6 seconds to go after leveling Rostislav Klesla into the boards with a hit from behind. It created a 3-on-3 for 31 seconds, but nothing came of the situation, and the contest progressed to the shootout.
Game Notes
Columbus was 1-for-4 on the power play, while Anaheim went 0-for-5...The Ducks entered the contest having killed 16 of their last 17 penalties, dating back to October 31...On Friday, the Blue Jackets placed forward Raffi Torres on IR. Torres took a puck to the face in the team's 9-1 loss to Detroit on Wednesday and is expected to miss at least one week...Perry had an assist to extend his career-high point streak to 10 games...Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer skated in his 1,200th career game, becoming the 28th defenseman all-time to do so. He is only the fifth active defenseman to reach that mark, joining Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom, Vancouver's Mathieu Schneider, St. Louis' Darryl Sydor and San Jose's Rob Blake.
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