COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jason Williams scored his first three goals of the season in the opening 16 minutes, leading the Detroit Red Wings to a 6-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It was Williams’ first career three-goal game. Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings (8-1-0), who won their fifth game in a row and have the NHL’s best record. Conversely, the Blue Jackets (2-6-0) have the fewest goals (15) in the league and are tied for the fewest points (4).
Datsyuk also had two assists, and Zetterberg adding one. Manny Legace had 17 saves in his second shutout of the season.
Williams’ first goal came after Robert Lang won a faceoff. Williams skated in from just inside the left hash to ram a shot in off the near post past Columbus goaltender Marc Denis.
Just 37 seconds later, Blue Jackets forward Michael Rupp threw the perfect centering pass – in front of his own goal – to Franzen for an easy goal.
Williams picked up his second goal off some precision puck movement, with Tomas Holmstrom passing along the back boards to Datsyuk, who put the puck on Williams’ stick in the high slot.
Williams notched his third to make it 4-0 at the 15:54 mark after Brendan Shanahan dug the puck off the wall and fed him in the high slot.
After a scoreless second period, the Wings made it 5-0 on Jason Woolley’s cross-ice backdoor pass to Zetterberg for an easy jam shot at 7:11 of the third. Datsyuk then scored off a rebound at 14:09.
Denis surrendered four of the goals on 17 shots, with Martin Prusek giving up two goals on 19 shots in his season debut for the Blue Jackets.
Notes: Detroit is 4-0 on the road. … Woolley extended his assists streak to five games in a row and Mathieu Schneider and Brendan Shanahan each have points in their last four games. … It was the second-worst home shutout for the Blue Jackets, topped only by an 8-0 loss to Boston in 2002. … The Red Wings were 1-for-4 on the power play and Columbus 0-for-6. … The Blue Jackets are 2-1 when they score first, 0-5 when they don’t.
AP-ES-10-22-05 2138EDT
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