NHL ROUNDUP | Friday’s games

Blue Jackets 6, Blues 4

COLUMBUS — Nikolai Zherdev scored twice in the last 6 minutes — one on a highlight-reel move that provided the go-ahead goal — and Columbus got some payback for a bad loss Tuesday night. With the score tied 3-all, Zherdev swooped into the offensive zone and passed the puck to himself backward between his legs before wristing a shot from the high slot that got by goaltender Hannu Toivonen at the 5:57 mark. After Dan Fritsche made it 5-3 on a shot from the left dot just over a minute later, Zherdev took a long pass from David Vyborny and scored on a backhander for his 17th of the season. He had just 10 goals in 71 games a year ago. Zherdev didn’t practice on Wednesday or Thursday after taking a hard hit from David Backes in St. Louis’ 6-1 victory over the Blue Jackets Tuesday night.

Wild 5, Blackhawks 2

CHICAGO — Josh Harding made 41 saves and Marian Gaborik scored two goals as Minnesota handed Chicago its eighth straight loss. Matt Foy, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Mark Parrish also scored for Minnesota, which won its second straight despite being outshot 43-16. The Wild’s Eric Belanger had two assists. Brent Sopel and Martin Havlat scored for injury-depleted Chicago, which is 0-6-2 during its skid. Sopel connected in his first game — and second shift — after missing seven contests with a broken finger.

Associated Press