Blue Jackets top Red Wings to draw even in wild-card race

James van Riemsdyk scored two goals to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-2 road win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Kent Johnson had a goal and an assist and Boone Jenner had three assists for Columbus, which has won three straight. With the victory, Columbus pulled level on points with Detroit, and the teams occupy the two Eastern Conference wild-card positions.

J.T. Compher had a goal and an assist and Alex DeBrincat added a goal for the Red Wings, who lost for just the third time in their last 12 games.

After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for six goals in the second period.

Detroit opened the scoring 27 seconds into the period on a tally by DeBrincat, but Columbus responded with four straight goals.

With 15:44 left in the period, van Riemsdyk tied the game at 1-1 when he camped himself in front of the Detroit goal and tipped in a shot from the point by Jake Christiansen.

Columbus then took a 2-1 lead with 10:17 to go in the period when Sean Kuraly poked in a loose puck that sat in the goal crease behind Detroit goalie Cam Talbot.

Johnson tipped in a shot past Talbot with 7:52 left in the period to make it 3-1 Blue Jackets. Less than three minutes later, they added to the margin again when Jenner fed a pass from behind the Detroit net in front to van Riemsdyk, who banged in a shot.

Detroit cut its deficit to 4-2 with 3:21 left in the second on a power-play goal by Compher, who snapped in a shot from in between the faceoff circles.

Kirill Marchenko wrapped up the game for Columbus when he scored an empty-net goal with 56.8 seconds left.

Daniil Tarasov made 29 saves in net for Columbus, while Talbot stopped 25 shots for Detroit.

--Field Level Media