Blue Jackets continue to climb Metro ladder with 3-2 win over Detroit

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Columbus Blue Jackets had their down turn earlier in 2018 but now have re-discovered their game.

On Friday night, the Jackets moved into the first wild card spot in the east with a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Photo by: Brianna O’Mara

Seth Jones led the charge for Columbus with two strikes in the win.

“Pucks are going in,” Jones said. “Sometimes you get stretches like that and then you go 15, 20 games without a point. That’s the way hockey is. It’s a good time for me to be producing now with the situation we’re in.”

Columbus is now just two points out of the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.

“We always talked about how we just wanted to make sure we were hitting our stride at the right time,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. “We still have a little ways to go, but we feel more and more confident about our game as we get closer to the stuff that matters.”

Matt Calvert also scored for the Blue Jackets.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 22 saves to pick up the win.

Darren Helm and Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Red Wings.

“We had some good wall battles there to keep the puck in and eventually [Helm] gets a good chance,” Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg said. “It was close.”

Detroit has lost six straight and dropped to 26-31-11,

“We worked harder,” Zetterberg said. “We did things right and everyone showed up. We battled hard. We had a really good start. We didn’t really get anything with it but we created a lot of chances. We forechecked pretty good and had pressure on them.”

[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets highlights]

Jared Coreau made 33 saves in taking the loss.

“Anytime you get shut out you want to come back and play harder and play for your teammates and your goalie,” Athanasiou said after the loss.