Foote Helps Blue Jackets Beat Red Wings

Saturday, January 20th 2007, 6:17 am

By: News On 6

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Maybe the Columbus Blue Jackets should have more team meetings. Coming off a shutout loss at Nashville the night before and having lost five of their last six, the Blue Jackets outhustled Detroit 3-1 Friday night to end the Red Wings' five-game winning streak.

Dan Fritsche, Alexander Svitov and Adam Foote scored and Fredrik Norrena made 41 saves to lead the way. Foote, the team captain, also had an assist.

The Blue Jackets had a brief closed-door talk after the 4-0 loss in Nashville.

``We as players put a lot on this game,'' Foote said. ``We weren't too happy with our play last night. We realize we have to all buckle down and do our own job. If we do that we'll be tough to beat.''

The Blue Jackets, 24th in the NHL on the power play, scored twice in eight man-advantage chances while the Red Wings were 0-for-6.

``Every team in our league right now since we've been running this (salary) cap system can beat every other team,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. ``There's not enough disparity. If you don't bring your 'A' game, you don't win _ it's that simple.''

In the other NHL games Friday night, it was: Buffalo 4, Vancouver 3 in a shootout; Minnesota 3, Chicago 0; and Calgary 3, Anaheim 2.

Norrena had a big night in goal, a day after Columbus tied a franchise record by being shut out for the 11th time this season.

``We scored three goals. That makes it even nicer,'' Norrena said. ``It was nice to bounce back. It's important that we see that we can still beat the top teams. We want to stay in the hunt. We have to win a lot of games from now on.''

With the Red Wings trailing 2-1 and buzzing the net late in the game, Foote provided the insurance goal when his blast from the point hit off Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios' leg and slipped past a surprised Dominik Hasek.

Johan Franzen scored at the 4:53 mark of the third to end Norrena's shutout. The Red Wings, down 2-0 at the time, own the longest streak of consecutive games without a shutout in the NHL at 169 games. They have not been shutout in more than three years.

Columbus took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Hasek stopped Manny Malhotra's hard one-timer only to have Fritsche pounce on the rebound and jam it home for his ninth of the season.

``They scored on a lucky bounce on the first one,'' said Hasek, who had 24 saves. ``Their player (Fritsche) was in the crease and kind of pushed me away.''

Midway through the second, Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom picked up a 4-minute double minor for high sticking his former teammate, Sergei Fedorov, who cupped a hand over his bleeding left ear as he went to the penalty box.

Soon after, Foote's slap shot was redirected by Svitov for his fifth of the year.

Twenty-four hours made a huge difference.

``I told the players after last night, 'Everything we're looking for is team _ the thing we want to see is better team play,''' Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said Friday night. ``We saw a lot of the things (tonight) that we need to continue to build on.''

Sabres 4, Canucks 3, SO

Ales Kotalik scored the decisive shootout goal and Buffalo snapped Vancouver's six-game road winning streak.

Chris Drury tied it with 39.1 seconds left in the third period. Jason Pominville and Paul Gaustad also scored in regulation for the Sabres. Ryan Miller stopped 25 shots and allowed only one goal on four shootout attempts.

Markus Naslund, Taylor Pyatt and Jan Bulis scored for the Canucks, who dropped to 10-1-1 in their last 12 games.

Wild 3, Blackhawks 0

At Chicago, Manny Fernandez stopped 24 shots for his second shutout this season, and Marian Gaborik scored twice.

Stephane Veilleux also scored for the Wild, who handed the Blackhawks their eighth consecutive loss.

The Wild, who entered the NHL in 2000-01, posted a franchise-record fourth straight road win. Minnesota has also won four of its last five overall.

Flames 3, Ducks 2

Dion Phaneuf and Alex Tanguay scored in the first period and Calgary held on to beat Anaheim.

Stephane Yelle scored the eventual game-winner near the midpoint of the second period to push Calgary's lead to 3-0. Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 22 shots to help the Flames win their fifth straight at home, where they are an NHL-best 19-5.

Scott Niedermayer scored twice for the Ducks.