The New York Rangers topped the Colombus Blue Jackets by a score of 3-1 on Friday night, thanks in part to goals from Daniel Girardi, Brandon Dubinsky, and Nikolai Zherdev. Henrik Lundqvist turned in a stellar performance on Friday as well. He allowed a first period goal to Jakub Voracek (Voracek’s third goal of the season), but shut down the Jackets for the remainder of the game.

“The key for us was that we didn’t change anything even though they got that goal,” said Lundqvist, who had 25 saves. “We just kept playing the same way and for us it was a perfect road game.”

This Rangers-Blue Jackets duel featured the return of Nikolai Zherdev to Colombus. Zherdev, a highly regarded prospect with the Blue Jackets, played in Colombus from 2003 to 2008, frequently causing controversey from his clashes with the Colombus coaching staff. After creating the image of a troubled player who would let his emotions get in the way of his NHL success, Zherdev was traded at the end of last season with Dan Fritsche to the New York Rangers for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman. When Zherdev scored a goal in the third period, he was met with a negative reaction from the 14,724 in attendance.

“It was a good team win,” Zherdev said. “I was just happy to score.”

Rangers captain Chris Drury said that he was proud of Zherdev’s performance after the game.

“It’s not easy going back to the team that traded you,” Drury said. “He seemed real focused. He just had a great night.”