Reinprecht dooms Blue Jackets

He snapped his scoring slump with a goal that gave Colorado a 5-4 win.
DENVER (AP) -- Steven Reinprecht picked the perfect time to end his scoring slump.
Reinprecht set up Colorado's first goal, then scored the game-winner midway through the third period as the Avalanche beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 Tuesday night to end the worst home start in the 24-year history of the franchise.
"I had some chances on this scoring slump, but I pushed it a little bit hard and was thinking about it too much," Reinprecht said. "When things aren't going for you, you just need to focus on what you can do to help the team."
Reinprecht entered with no goals on 29 shots and just three points in 15 games. Against Columbus, he had an assist on the first of two goals by Milan Hejduk in the first period -- his second point in 10 games -- then scored with 8:29 left to put the Avalanche up 5-3.
"Tonight, Rhino had his best game of the season for us, and that's huge because we need Rhino," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said.
Found way to win
Colorado continued to struggle on special teams, survived a late goal and fought off a flurry of shots in the final six minutes, and somehow found a way to win for the first time in nine home games.
The Avalanche got two goals from Hejduk, a goal and an assist from Peter Forsberg and peppered Columbus goalie Marc Denis with 51 shots to become the last NHL team to win at home (1-4-3-1).
"Certainly it was not a fun week for anyone, starting with our fans, for us, the management, the players," Hartley said. "We were not happy with where we were at and we are still not happy with where we are at, but tonight it's two points."
It wasn't easy.
Hejduk scored his first goal with 26 seconds left in the first period, but Geoff Sanderson answered with his first of two early in the second.
Hejduk makes it 3-2
Radim Vrbata tied 53 seconds later, and Hejduk put the Avalanche up 3-2 late in the period. Sanderson opened the third with a power-play goal -- the ninth allowed by Colorado on its five-game homestand.
The Avalanche seemed to be in control when Reinprecht beat Denis with a hard slap shot from between the circles, but Jaroslav Spacek made things tense by beating Patrick Roy from near the blue line with 5:58 left.
"The good news is we showed lots of resiliency," said Denis, who dropped to 0-5 against his former team. "We were down a few times, but came back and made it a game."
Survived penalties
Columbus did it by surviving seven penalties in the first two periods, after setting a team record with 66 penalty minutes against the New York Rangers on Saturday. Columbus allowed just one goal -- on a two-man advantage -- then stayed out of the box in the third to put more pressure on the Avalanche.
"This was a difficult game for us because until the third period we couldn't play even up," said Columbus coach Jim Clark, whose team failed to earn a point for the first time in six games. "Once we did in the third, it was a pretty interesting period."