COLUMBUS, Ohio _ The young core came up scoring, carrying the Detroit Red Wings to a budding winning streak.
The Wings scored three early goals Tuesday at Nationwide Arena but the Columbus Blue Jackets answered with three of their own in the third period. Tyler Bertuzzi backhanded a pass into the Columbus net off a setup from Dennis Cholowski to score the winning goal of an eventual 5-3 final.
It's the first time this season the Wings have won two straight games.
Three other key blocks in the rebuilding process _ Michael Rasmussen, Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha _ provided a 3-0 lead after 14 minutes. Larkin assisted on Mantha's goal and scored an empty-net goal in the third period, giving Larkin his fourth multi-point game this season.
Jimmy Howard came up big as the Blue Jackets surged into the second period, especially as the Wings got into a bit of penalty trouble. Howard didn't let up a goal until 2:48 of the third period when Josh Anderson snuck in behind Detroit's defense. Markus Nutivaara got Columbus within a goal midway through the period, and 1:21 later, Pierre-Luc Dubois flipped the puck into the near corner behind Howard for a tie game.
It was a big game for rookie Rasmussen. First, it was his 10th, which triggers his NHL entry-level contract and it will make him eligible for unrestricted free agency a year earlier. Secondly, he scored his first goal, just 66 seconds into the game. Thomas Vanek had the puck behind Columbus' net and sent a sweet little pass toward the slot, where Rasmussen tapped it in to give the Wings a 1-0 lead. Rasmussen has had several good scoring chances only to come up short (he did put the puck in the net in Florida but officials ruled Justin Abdelkader had interfered with the goalie) and should give him a nice shot of confidence.
The Wings came into the game feeling better about themselves after the way they played Sunday, when they kept attacking after building a lead against Dallas. They followed up with a good first period in Columbus. They went on a penalty kill at 7:52 when Abdelkader was called for slashing. The Wings don't lack for aggressiveness on the PK, and this one saw Larkin take advantage of Seth Jones falling to speed in and slip a backhand on Joonas Korpisalo.
Next it was Mantha's turn _ at 13:33 he fed off a stretch pass from Larkin and made it 3-0, prompting the Blue Jackets to put Sergei Bobrovsky in net. It was a good sign from Mantha, who opted to shoot rather than pass _ something the Wings have been emphasizing he do.
The Wings already were without forwards Frans Nielsen and Andreas Athanasiou, both of whom have undisclosed injuries. That prompted a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen _ but it became 10 forwards during the first period. Vanek left with what was announced as a lower body injury after a hit. There was no immediate further update on his status. Vanek has four points his last five games.
