Blue Jackets fail to win on the road once again

OTTAWA (AP) -- Marian Hossa made sure he took advantage of his many scoring chances.

Hossa scored three goals, including the game-winner, to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

"It's nice to get some five-on-five,'' said Hossa, who led the league with seven power-play goals entering the game. "I've been lucky on the power play so far this year and I think half our goals have come on the power play.''

Petr Schastlivy and Wade Redden also scored for Ottawa, which extended its unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1-0).

"It feels really good,'' said Hossa, who extended his point streak to nine games. "I had so many chances tonight. We knew it would be tough and we didn't have a great first period.''

Ottawa coach Jacques Martin was impressed with Hossa's effort.

"Marian doesn't take too many nights off,'' Martin said. "It's nice to see him get the results.''

David Vyborny and Matt Davidson scored for Columbus, which has only one win in nine road games (1-6-1-1) and are 1-13-1-2 dating to March 25, 2001.

"Ottawa is one of the better teams in the league,'' Columbus center Andrew Cassels said. "We've had trouble holding leads and they took advantage of our mistakes.''

Schastlivy opened the scoring on the game's first shot at 1:58 of the first. He one-timed a nice feed from Martin Havlat past J.F. Labbe.

Labbe made his first start of the season after Marc Denis started all 20 of the Blue Jackets' previous games.

Vyborny and Davidson countered with a little over four minutes left in the period.

Davidson gave the Blue Jackets the lead by putting a rebound past Martin Prusek, last season's AHL goaltender of the year with Grand Rapids who was making his second NHL start.

"I thought (Prusek) made some big saves,'' Martin said. "He's looking more comfortable.''

Hossa fired through traffic to tie it 2-2 at 1:47 into the second. He extended his point streak to nine games and entered leading the NHL with seven power-play goals.

Hossa scored again 5:58 into the final period, breaking down the right side and cutting into the slot before beating Labbe with the winner.

Redden completed the scoring with 1:10 remaining.

"I think it was a real end-to-end, foot-to-foot battle,'' Columbus' Geoff Sanderson said. "When they got up by a goal in the third to take the lead, we had to take more chances and open it up.''

Game notes
Columbus has made 13 lineup changes since the team's previous visit in February. ... The Blue Jackets were without centers Tyler Wright (broken hand), Espen Knutsen (groin) and Don MacLean (neck) on the injured list. D Jamie Allison was a healthy scratch. ... For the Senators, LW Jody Hull (left hand) and D Shane Hnidy (left eye) sat out. D Karel Rachunek is undergoing a conditioning stint in Binghamton after ending a contract holdout and could arrive at the Corel Centre for Monday night's game against Toronto.