Red Wings 2, Blue Jackets 1

Paul Harris, The Sports Xchange

DETROIT -- Jonas Gustavsson made 36 saves and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Daniel Alfredsson scored his first goal as a Red Wing and Todd Bertuzzi also scored for Detroit. Henrik Zetterberg had two assists.

Gustavsson made a spectacular stop on Columbus defenseman Jack Johnson, sliding across the crease to smother a backhand shot from the right circle with 5:20 left to preserve his team's lead.

Cam Atkinson scored for Columbus and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.

Bertuzzi's power-play goal gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead with 8:46 left in the second period. He got his second goal from just outside the crease as he directed in a bouncing puck.

Atkinson tied the game at 1, 7:48 into the second period with an unassisted power-play goal. It was a spectacular individual effort as he carried the puck the length of the ice, bulled past Detroit defenseman Dan DeKeyser, got off a shot and then jammed the rebound past Gustavsson. It was Atkinson's second goal of the season.

Alfredsson gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 5:05 into the game when he blasted a slap shot past Bobrovsky from the left circle.

Detroit skated away with a 1-0 lead after the first period, despite being outshot 18-7 in the first 20 minutes. Gustavsson stopped Boone Jenner on a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle 7:25 into the opening period and Johnson hit the crossbar from the slot with 7:40 left in the first during a power play. Gustavsson also denied Atkinson twice from in close in the period's last 10 seconds during another Columbus power play.

NOTES: Detroit's No. 1 G Jimmy Howard missed his second consecutive game with a sore hand. G Petr Mrazek was recalled from Grand Rapids of the AHL earlier in the day to back up Gustavsson. ... Columbus D James Wisniewski is a native of the Detroit-area suburb Canton and played his junior hockey with the suburban-Detroit based Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League. ... Blue Jackets' D Johnson is from Ann Arbor and played at the University of Michigan. ... The start of the game was pushed back to 8 p.m., from its originally scheduled 7:30 p.m. face-off because of the Detroit Tigers' American League Championship Series game against the Boston Red Sox, which began at 4 p.m., Tuesday at Comerica Park. ... Blue Jackets RW Jared Boll also played with the OHL's Plymouth Whalers.