Atkinson scores 2 to lead Blue Jackets past Rangers, 5-2

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Cam Atkinson scored twice while Marko Dano and Nick Foligno each had a goal and an assist to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

Artem Anisimov, like Atkinson, scored for the second game in a row for the Blue Jackets, who moved to 2-0 for the first time in five years.

Dano had his first NHL goal and points and Scott Hartnell and Ryan Johansen, who joined the Blue Jackets on Wednesday after a contract holdout, had two assists apiece.

Former Columbus captain Rick Nash picked up his third goal and Lee Stempniak also scored for the Rangers, who opened the season by splitting two road games.

Anthony Duclair had two assists, also his first career NHL points, for the Rangers.

Sergei Bobrovsky had 24 saves for the Blue Jackets while Cam Talbot made 19 stops in relief of Henrik Lundqvist for the Rangers.

There remains an edge to both teams since so many current players saw action for the other side. Nash, Derick Brassard and John Moore are former Blue Jackets, while Fedor Tyutin, Anisimov and Tim Erixon have played for the Rangers.

With Columbus up 3-1 through two periods, Dano jammed in a rebound of Dalton Prout's shot from the point with just over 6 minutes remaining.

Almost immediately, Nash scored his third goal in two games while a sellout crowd of 18,922 booed loudly.

Atkinson then closed the scoring with an empty-netter.

The capacity crowd had a lot to cheer. Anisimov arrived late to the play but stepped into a one-timer from just outside the left dot to beat Talbot 6:24 in. Hartnell's blind pass from the left corner set up the shot and Dano, the 27th overall pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL draft, collected his first NHL point. He pointed and smiled to his parents during the goal celebration.

After the teams had each failed to score on two power plays, Foligno's second effort made it 2-0.

He wheeled from the right circle into the slot and put a shot on goal that Talbot blocked. But the rebound bounced back to Foligno, who was on all fours as he shoved it into the net.

Stempniak cut the lead in half at 5:43 of the second with a hard wrister from the right circle, assisted by Duclair and Marc Staal.

But the Blue Jackets boosted the lead back to two goals through the second when Johansen, who signed a three-year, $12-million deal on Monday, whipped a shot on net off a loose puck. Foligno got a stick on it to send it to Atkinson at the doorstep, who tapped it in midway through the period.

Notes: The game was chippy from the outset. After Anisimov's goal, he was nailed by Stempniak, with Stempniak later leveled by Hartnell. ... Nash had tussled with fan favorite Bobrovsky and Matt Calvert in New York's 3-1 win the last time the teams met in Nationwide Arena last March. ... During the customary pregame introductions at a home opener, for an instant the Blue Jackets' bench was almost as full as the ice with the injured (D Ryan Murray, C Boone Jenner, RW Nathan Horton, C Brian Gibbons and C Brandon Dubinsky) joined by healthy scratches (RW Corey Tropp, D Cody Goloubef and RW Adam Cracknell).

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