Brassard has goal and 2 assists to lead Columbus to 5-1 rout of Minnesota

Brassard leads Columbus to 5-1 rout of Minnesota

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Derick Brassard had a goal and two assists to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.

The Jackets led 4-0 after two periods in their first preseason home game after three road losses. Raffi Torres, Grant Clitsome, Antoine Vermette and Rick Nash also scored for the Jackets and Kristian Huselius had two assists.

Minnesota (2-2) entered the game with two consecutive shutout wins at home. Kyle Brodziak broke the shutout bid of Steve Mason when he scored on the Wild’s 13th shot at 12:03 of the third.

Torres opened the scoring at 11:37 of the first on a rebound from the left circle off a Samuel Pahlsson shot and assisted along with Brassard on Clitsome’s score at 18:35.

Mason made two point-blank stops on Petr Sykora during a Wild power play in the middle period before Vermette stole the puck in the neutral zone on the next shift and scored an unassisted short-handed goal at 16:03.

Nash followed 72 seconds later off a feed from Huselius. Nash deked Tyler Cuma then beat Harding. Brassard made it 5-0 at 7:54 of the final period by converting one-timing a backhand pass across the goalmouth from Huselius.