Jonatan Berggren scored the winning goal with just 36 seconds left in the third period to give the Detroit Red Wings a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
Tyler Motte pushed a loose puck to Berggren, who broke away and scored just five seconds after leaving the penalty box following a Columbus power play.
Berggren had been serving a delay of game penalty for the Red Wings after they unsuccessfully challenged a goal by James van Riemsdyk, which tied the game 4-4 at 17:19.
“Ben (Chiarot) made a huge block and then it landed perfect on Motte’s stick. He saw me and I tried to score,” Berggren said. “When you’re sitting in the penalty box you kind of hope it comes like that. This time it was lucky.”
Alex DeBrincat contributed a goal and two assists, while Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin each had a goal and an assist. Erik Gustafsson also scored for the Red Wings (16-18-4), who have now won three games in a row after a four-game losing streak. Cam Talbot made 21 saves.
“The finish is what we were looking for, not necessarily the road map we had to get there, but we said we’d find out a little bit about our team,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “Found out that there’s some resiliency in the group.”
Van Riemsdyk had two goals and an assist, while Zach Werenski scored and added two assists, extending his home point streak to 14 games. Sean Monahan also scored for the Blue Jackets (16-17-6), who had won three out of four games. Elvis Merzlikins made 21 saves.
“There’s a lot of stuff we could have done better to put ourselves in a position to not have it come down to the end like that,” Werenski said. “I think if we start better, get to our game better, it’s probably a different story at the end. I think that’s the main thing — playing the full 60 minutes — and I don’t think we did that tonight.”
Van Riemsdyk gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 2:42 of the first period on a power play, tipping a shot from Cole Sillinger.
Kane tied the game 1-1 at 6:55 by poking the puck in after Merzlikins couldn’t handle a shot from DeBrincat in the slot. The Blue Jackets couldn’t clear the rebound. Kane extended his goal streak to three games.
Gustafsson put the Red Wings ahead 2-1 at 14:39 with a shot from the left point that hit the post and went in for his first goal of the season, ending a 42-game goal drought since March 11, 2024.
DeBrincat then scored a power play goal just seven seconds into a man advantage at 17:09, making it 3-1.
DeBrincat said there’s been a positive feeling since McLellan became the coach on Dec. 26. “I think there’s no quit,” DeBrincat said. “We give up that late goal, and our PK does a great job, and obviously [Berggren] scores after that.
“We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing. We just keep working to get that momentum back and it’s been going well for us.”
Werenski made it 3-2 at 11:09 of the second period after Fantilli won the draw in the left face-off circle, passing it to him for a shot from the high slot.
Monahan tied the game 3-3 at 18:40 by converting a backhand pass from van Riemsdyk in the right corner.
Larkin gave the Red Wings a 4-3 lead with a power-play goal at 4:54 of the third period off a centering pass from DeBrincat.
Van Riemsdyk’s second goal seemed to set up the Blue Jackets for overtime, but Berggren scored in the final minute to win the game for Detroit.
“I’d love to be sitting here with at least a point and have the opportunity,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “We made a mistake at the end. It’s fine. We’ll learn from it, and we’ll go forward.”
