Blue Jackets rally past Red Wings, close in on clinching

COLUMBUS-- The Columbus Blue Jackets moved to the verge of a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 5-4 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.

Columbus (45-29-6) is third in the Metropolitan Division behind the Pittsburgh Penguins because they have fewer regulation/overtime wins (43-38). They play each other Thursday.
\[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets highlights\]
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored with 2:05 left in overtime after Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal with 2:16 left in the third period to tie it 4-4. Detroit led 4-1 in the second period.
It was the third time in the past four games the Blue Jackets earned a point after trailing by three goals.
"It says a lot when you're able to come back like that, keep playing," Dubois said. "We hit five, six posts in the first two periods.
"You'd rather not be down three goals to start the game. Something happens to come back in all three games. Everyone's confident on the bench. We stay calm, just keep going with it."

Edmonton led 3-0 in the first period on March 27 before Columbus won 7-3. Vancouver led 4-1 in the third period Saturday and Columbus lost 5-4 in overtime.
On Tuesday, the Blue Jackets had to kill 1:06 of a Red Wings power play to start overtime. Dubois scored the 20th goal of his rookie season, spinning and shooting after taking a pass from Ryan Murray between the circles.
"It happened so fast, you don't have time to look," Dubois said. "You have to trust your instincts."
Cam Atkinson scored two power-play goals for the Blue Jackets with Seth Jones and Panarin assisting on each. Sonny Milano scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves for Columbus, which has won 13 of 15.

Panarin had two assists to set the Blue Jackets record with 80 points (27 goals, 53 assists) this season. Rick Nash had 79 (40 goals, 39 assists) in 2008-09. Panarin has seven points (one goal, six assists) in the past two games.
Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice, Henrik Zetterberg had three assists, and Jimmy Howard made 36 saves for Detroit (30-38-12), which had won three in a row.
"We go up 4-1 and I thought we stopped playing the right way," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "Enough guys took a step backwards in regards to doing it the right way. You can't play hockey the wrong way and expect to make progress."

Atkinson made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 10:50 of the second period, and Milano made it 4-3 at 9:22 of the third when a shot by Zach Werenski was saved. Milano followed the shot and the puck went through the crease to him for his 15th.
"I tried to poke it in the net but he stole my goal," Werenski said.
Bertuzzi redirected Zetterberg's low-angle shot for a 1-0 lead at 3:50 of the first period. Atkinson scored at 6:16 to make it 1-1 during a 5-on-3 power play. Helm gave Detroit a 2-1 lead at 11:12, and Bertuzzi scored a power-play goal at 18:37 to make it 3-1.
Zetterberg's blind, backhand pass set up Nyquist's goal from the slot at 31 seconds of the second period, on the Red Wings' second power play, for a 4-1 lead.

"We definitely like to make it interesting not only for ourselves and our fans, but we're just a resilient group," Atkinson said. "We're never out of the fight."

Goal of the game

Dubois' goal at 2:55 of overtime.

Save of the game

Bobrovsky's save on Dylan Larkin at 19:05 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Panarin's goal at 17:44 of the third period.

They said it

"I give our guys credit. They stayed with it. The only thing we asked is they not do too much and leave themselves open. We had plenty of time left. Our guys kept patient and kept banging away." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"The second (period) we started to cheat, stay out long. If Howard wasn't standing on his head they probably would have tied it up in the second already." -- Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg

Need to know

The Blue Jackets would make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time. ... Zetterberg moved three points ahead of Sergei Fedorov for fifth on the Red Wings points list. Zetterberg has 957 points with Detroit (336 goals, 621 assists). Nicklas Lidstrom is fourth with 1,142. ... Panarin's two assists set the Blue Jackets record for most in a season (53), bettering Ray Whitney's 52 in 2002-03. ... Blue Jackets forward
Alex Broadhurst
, the 199th pick in the 2011 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, played 5:18 his NHL debut.

What's next

Red Wings: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)