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Mason, Williams help Blue Jackets clip Red Wings

Feb 14, 2009 - 4:51 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- After a recent bout with mononucleosis, rookie Steve Mason picked up right where he left off Friday to help the Columbus Blue Jackets record another win.

Mason made 32 saves in his return from injured reserve and Jason Williams snapped a tie with 6:55 remaining in the third period as the Blue Jackets skated past the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2, on Friday.

Jason Chimera and Raffi Torres also scored and Jakub Voracek recorded a pair of assists for Columbus, which has won three straight games overall and two in a row against Detroit.

"Other people are stepping up. That's really important for us," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We're having other people contribute for us to win hockey games. The nice part is, we can win hockey games without scoring from (captain Rick) Nash and (Kristian) Huselius."

Mason had his spectacular rookie season interrupted last week because of the illness but did not show any rust in this one after missing the previous three games.

"I felt great. There wasn't even points in the game I was tired," Mason said. "That was pretty positive. The energy was there for me tonight, and when you have the energy, you're more competitive. The last few games I played, I was kind of dragging along. Definitely tonight, my energy level was up high."

The 20-year-old made 11 saves in the third period, including a spectacular stop on Henrik Zetterberg in the final minute to secure the win. Zetterberg pounced on a loose puck and let go a blast from the top of the left faceoff circle, but Mason stacked his pads to kick away the shot and preserve the 3-2 lead.

"(Mason) played really well," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "Hank (Zetterberg) had a great chance when we had the six guys out there, but he did a good job of denying him. They played real well in front of him, too, knocking the puck away. They didn't give us much to shoot at."

Williams, who spent six seasons in the Red Wings organization from 2000-07, gave the Blue Jackets the lead when he picked up a loose puck along the boards and snapped a shot from the right circle that beat goaltender Chris Osgood to the glove side.

"He's one of those few guys that doesn't need a lot of chances to score," Hitchcock said of Williams. "He's a shooter. If you give him time - I knew he was going to score - he's going to finish. He's a smart player."

Osgood stopped 22 shots and Lidstrom and Mikael Samuelsson tallied for the Red Wings, who had their six-game winning streak snapped.

Mason entered the contest leading the NHL in shutouts (seven) and goals-against average (2.09). He improved to 20-12-2 in 35 games this season.

"There couldn't be a better team to jump back into (action against)," Mason said. "Detroit is a great team, and we put forth a great effort. Obviously, it paid dividends in the end."

Torres scored the lone goal of the first period after Michael Peca stole an attempted pass by defenseman Chris Chelios and set up the left wing for a shot that found the top right corner of the net just 2:45 into the session.

"We started down when we turned that puck over right away, which was crazy," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

After serving a penalty for hooking early in the middle period, Lidstrom skated out of the box, took a pass from Pavel Datsyuk and beat Mason at 3:25 to knot the contest.

Less than four minutes later, Osgood failed to glove a shot by Voracek. Chimera picked up the loose puck and backhanded it past the veteran netminder at 7:21 to put the Blue Jackets back in front, 2-1.

Samuelsson forged another tie at 4:04 of the third with his 16th goal of the season for Detroit, which still has two meetings remaining with its Central Division rival.

"For back-to-back nights, I thought our guys battled," Babcock said. "We knew in the first 10 minutes, you have to get going, you have to get your legs back. I thought guys competed hard."