Red Wings 5, Blue Jackets 0: Jimmy Howard made 28 saves to record his first shutout of the season and Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco each collected a goal and an assist as Detroit snapped a four-game winless skid at Nationwide Arena.

Riley Sheahan scored for the second straight contest and Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm also tallied for the Red Wings. Defenseman Brendan Smith notched two assists and Howard highlighted his 19th career blanking by stopping 12 shots in the first period.

Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 35 shots for the Blue Jackets, who saw their modest two-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 7-2-1 in their last 10 meetings with Detroit. Columbus went 0-for-3 on the power play after registering four tallies with the man-advantage in the previous two contests.

Detroit opened the scoring midway through the first period as defenseman Jonathan Ericsson's slap shot caromed off Blue Jackets blue-liner Jordan Leopold and right to Tatar, who buried the loose puck for his sixth goal of the season. Columbus nearly forged a tie late in the session as Boone Jenner skated across the goal mouth and redirected the puck home with his right skate, but officials denied the tally due to the distinct kicking motion.

The Red Wings doubled the advantage 1:44 into the second as Johan Franzen's wrist shot from the slot was denied by Bobrovsky, who was unable to stop Nyquist from the doorstep. Jurco added a power-play goal at 4:49 of the third before Sheahan tipped home Smith's deft pass from in close just 72 seconds later.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Detroit C Pavel Datsyuk sat out with a groin injury. ... The Red Wings are 6-1-2 when they score the game's first goal, and 3-3-3 when they don't. ... Columbus RW Jack Skille (wrist) and LW Matt Calvert (upper body) missed their fifth and fourth games, respectively.