COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets' season has been reduced to playing out the string with no chance of reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But if the Blue Jackets can make life difficult for one of their former Central Division rivals, that might make it easier.

The Blue Jackets scored two 5-on-3 goals and had four different scorers in a 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday at Nationwide Arena.

Cam Atkinson had two goals, and David Savard, David Clarkson and Boone Jenner each scored for the Blue Jackets, while rookie goaltender Joonas Korpisalo had 31 saves.

Korpisalo, a 21-year-old Finn, has 14 wins on the second, half of the Blue Jackets' team total.

The Red Wings' goals were scored by Justin Abdelkader, Tomas Tatar and Andreas Athanasiou, while goaltender Jimmy Howard – starting for struggling Petr Mrazek – finished with 27 saves.

Detroit holds a precarious two-point lead on Philadelphia for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Red Wings trailed 4-1 late in the third period before making a major push with Mrazek pulled for an extra skater. They scored two goals and outshot the Jackets 17-7 in the third period, but couldn't score the equalizer.

The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead only 35 seconds into the second period and only 11 seconds into a 5-on-3 power play.

Savard let loose a one-time offer a pass from Alexander Wennberg, sending the puck through a crowd and over Howard's left shoulder. It was Savard's fourth goal of the season, and his third in three games.

The Red Wings were getting outshot 17-4 at the time of Savard's goal, but they responded well.

Midway through the second, Abdelkader scored off the rush from low in the left circle off a feed from Gustav Nyquist.

The Blue Jackets got the goal back later in the second from an unlikely contributor.

Clarkson, who missed 45 games with various injuries this season, scored his second goal of the season and first since Dec. 17.

Matt Calvert skated the puck on net through the left circle, then fired a shot that Howard stopped initially. Clarkson was in Howard's grill for the rebound, however, sweeping it into the net off his backhand.

Jenner gave the Blue Jackets breathing room early in the third period, but it was linemate Brandon Dubinsky who did much of the work.

Dubinsky won a puck battle in the corner, then skated behind Howard's net and made a backhanded centering pass to Jenner on the doorstep for the easy score.

It was Jenner's 24th goal of the season, a new career high. He now shares the team lead with Brandon Saad, who is out of the lineup with an upper-body injury.

The Blue Jackets came into the game with only one 5-on-3 goal in 66 games this season.

Atkinson gave them two 5-on-3 goals in this game alone when he redirected a Seth Jones shot to make it 4-1 at 9:14 of the third.

The Wings spent much of the final five minutes with their goaltender pulled, and they generated two goals to make it interesting.

Tatar scored a power play goal with 4:16 remaining to make it 4-2, and Athanasiou redirected a Mike Green shot with 3:30 remaining to make it 4-3.

Atkinson fired into an empty net with 17.5 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.

NOTES: Red Wings C Pavel Datsyuk missed Sunday's 4-1 loss to Chicago with an illness but was back in the lineup against one of his favorite opponents. In 60 career games against the Blue Jackets, Datsyuk has 21 goals, 46 assists and a plus-24 rating. ... Blue Jackets D Jack Johnson (upper body) has resumed skating, but there's no timetable for his return. ... This marked the 82nd meeting between the Blue Jackets and Red Wings, or one season's worth of games. The Red Wings held a 53-19-1-8 advantage heading into the game.