COLUMBUS, Ohio _ This was another of those occasions when the Red Wings let a touch of adversity balloon into a bigger piece of trouble and suddenly lost a game because of it.
Columbus erased a third-period deficit with three successive goals Thursday, leading the Blue Jackets to a 5-4 victory over the Red Wings.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored a power-play goal at 7 minutes, 40 seconds _ converting a long rebound of former Red Wing Gustav Nyquist's shot _ tying the score, and Boone Jenner beat goaltender Jimmy Howard from a bad angle 1:03 later, breaking the tie.
Eric Robinson made it 5-3, at 13:49 _ three goals in 6:09 _ going around defenseman Joe Hicketts, skating in alone on Howard, and slipping through his third goal.
Tyler Bertuzzi's second goal of the night _ the Wings pulled Howard for an extra attacker _ cut the lead to 5-4 at 13:49, Bertuzzi tipping Dennis Cholowski's shot from the high slot.
The Wings had the extra skater for most of the final two minutes, but couldn't get the tying goal.
The Wings (7-14-3) lost their second consecutive game and are winless in four (0-2-2). Columbus (9-8-4) won its third in a row.
Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Luke Glendening (shorthanded) scored Wings goals, while Howard stopped 34 shots.
Alex Texier and Cam Atkinson (power play) added Jackets goals, as goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 22 saves.
The Wings looked sunk midway in the second period after wasting a 1 minute, 11 second two-man advantage while trailing 2-1.
With a chance to get back into the game, the Wings failed to get a shot on net during the two-man advantage, then didn't get a puck on net for the remaining 49 seconds on the 5-on-4.
The Blue Jackets appeared to have momentum but it was quickly squashed on a quirky Hronek goal.
Hronek wheeled near the dot and appeared to want to pass to Robby Fabbri near the opposite circle, but the puck bounced off Jackets defenseman Seth Jones and directly into the net, Hronek's fifth goal, and tying the score at 2-2 at 16:03.
After Dylan McIlrath was called for his third penalty of the evening, this one interference, the Wings actually used it to take the lead.
Bjorkstrand fumbled the puck at the blue line, allowing Glendening to race in on a breakaway.
Glendening deftly placed a backhand over Korpisalo, Glendening's third goal, putting the Wings ahead 3-2 at 16:47.
Glendening's shorthanded goal was noteworthy for another Wings' player.
Frans Nielsen drew the only assist on the goal, Nielsen's first point of the 2019-20 season, in his 20th game.
Blashill talked this week about the character and effort Nielsen brought to the Wings, despite the lack of offense.
"His effort and compete is great," Blashill said. "He took a hit in the third period against Anaheim where he was going to get crushed. Ninety% of the league bails and he did not. That was as indicative of a winning play as anything we had done to come back and tie the game.
"He's done that kind of stuff on a repeated basis.
"Now, do we need him to produce points? Yes, he's got to produce more points. It's more difficult when you're not on the power play, when you've gotten the kind of ice time he's gotten. But do we need him to produce? Yes."
Columbus opened the scoring with Texier's goal capping a strong, early Jackets push.
The Jackets kept the Wings hemmed in the zone for a lengthy period, and Texier banged in his own rebound, his third goal, at 5:37 of the first period.
Despite being largely outplayed early, the Wings were able to tie the score 1-1 on Bertuzzi's ninth goal at 12:06.
Bertuzzi got the puck inside the circle, patiently waited an instant, and unleashed a slap shot that Korpisalo might not have seen clearly with Dylan Larkin and Jones battling near the crease.
Columbus took a 2-1 lead early in the second period as the Wings got into excessive penalty trouble.
With McIlrath and Madison Bowey in the box, the Jackets quickly capitalized on a 46 second, two-man advantage, with Atkinson tapping in a loose puck for his fourth goal.
