Captain Rick Nash scored twice and Curtis Sanford turned aside 28 shots as the Columbus Blue Jackets moved out of the NHL basement with a 5-1 home triumph over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.

Mark Letestu scored and R.J. Umberger and defenseman Marc Methot tallied 12 seconds apart for Columbus (6-13-3, 15 points), which improved to 3-0-1 in its last four games to move past the New York Islanders (5-11-4, 14 points) in the standings.

After Letestu cleaned up a rebound to open the scoring midway through the first period, Nash doubled the advantage after deflecting defenseman James Wisniewski's blast for a power-play goal.

Nash gave the Blue Jackets a 5-1 lead with 5:53 remaining in the second period after converting Jeff Carter's brilliant feed for his seventh goal of the season.

The offensive explosion was more than enough for Sanford, who has stopped 131 of 138 shots to improve to 3-0-2 in his last five starts.

Columbus' Vinny Prospal became the 268th player in NHL history to compete in 1,000 games.

Jhonas Enroth permitted four goals on 18 shots before being relieved by Drew MacIntyre.