Blue Jackets edge Red Wings for fifth straight win

Break up the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Columbus won its fifth consecutive game and completed a weekend sweep of the Detroit Red Wings with a 3-2 shootout victory at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday.

Ryan Johansen and Matt Calvert beat Jimmy Howard with backhand dekes after Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk opened the tiebreaker by beating Sergei Bobrovsky through the five-hole. Bobrovsky stopped Damien Brunner with his glove and then ended the game by getting an arm on Henrik Zetterberg's snap shot.

Bobrovsky made 21 saves through 65 minutes to improve to 6-1-1 in his last eight decisions. The Blue Jackets are now 10-12-4, including 5-0-2 in their last seven, and with 24 points are just three out of eighth place in the Western Conference.

"Guys are working really hard," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "They earned all the points that we've gotten over the past six, seven games or whatever it is."

The Blue Jackets, who beat Detroit 3-0 in Columbus on Saturday, have points in seven straight games for the first time since Feb. 7-19, 2009. They went 4-0-1 against Detroit this season, the first time they've won the season series against the Red Wings since entering the National Hockey League in 2000.

"They've been giving it to us. It's great to come back strong," said center Derick Brassard, who scored the game's first goal.

Howard made 19 saves for the Red Wings, who head to Western Canada for three games this week.

"It definitely is frustrating we couldn't pick up the second point there, but on the bright side we still got one," Howard said. "They're tough. They play a tough style. They dump the puck in and then they all fall back in their own zone. All five of them are just standing there in front of the net, and it's tough to get pucks through."

Johan Franzen tied the game by scoring a 5-on-3 power-play goal 25 seconds into the third period. The Red Wings got the two-man advantage when Ryan Johansen was called for slashing with 24 seconds remaining in the second period and R.J. Umberger was sent off for delay of game on the ensuing faceoff.

After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for three goals in a 1:15 span early in the second.

Brassard opened the scoring at 3:10 of the second period when his blast from near the top of the right circle went through a screen and past Howard for his fourth of the season.

The Wings tied it 30 seconds later on a goal by rookie Jakub Kindl, who beat Bobrovsky with a slapper from the high slot, but Umberger capitalized on a turnover by Zetterberg and beat Howard from the top of the right circle at 4:25 for his fifth of the season.

"It's pretty hard to play here, especially back-to-back," Brassard said. "We just had to find a way to get off to a good start. That was the key to the game, the first 10 minutes."

Material from team media and wire services was used in this report.