"I was dying in there the entire two minutes," Torres said.

What followed was a 24-second snapshot that described a frantic evening in Nationwide Arena, in which the Blue Jackets led by two goals, trailed by two goals and ended up winning 5-4 over the Edmonton Oilers in front of a crowd of 11,228.

Derick Brassard, R.J. Umberger, Kristian Huselius, Fredrik Modin and Manny Malhotra scored for the Jackets, and Torres, Mike Commodore and Jake Voracek had two assists each. Rookie goaltender Steve Mason, making his NHL debut, had 22 saves.

"That was a hell of an output," Mason said of the five-goal support.

With 1:33 remaining in the game, and 12 seconds remaining on Torres' penalty, Jackets left winger Jason Chimera blocked a rifle-shot by Edmonton's Sheldon Souray with his abdomen.

"That's not any fun," Torres said.

"I flexed," Chimera said.

Doubled over, Chimera was able to swat the puck out of harm's way before he skated off the ice and behind the Jackets' bench to "make sure everything was intact."

Seconds later, Torres was freed and joined a rush and assisted on Manny Malhotra's winning goal with 1:09 remaining.

"We don't win easy ones, eh?" defenseman Fedor Tyutin said.

Only 13 games into the season, coach Ken Hitchcock seems resigned to it. He would rather play textbook hockey -- get the lead, shut it down, go celebrate -- but with three rookies in the lineup, that's not in the cards.

Yes, three rookies. Mason joined rookies Brassard and Voracek in the lineup.

"To be quite honest with you," Hitchcock said, "this is just our team. When you play young, skilled players, you're going to go through peaks and valleys during a 60-minute game.

"We're going to be an entertaining team all year. We're not going to be out of any game, because we can score goals and we can create offense. But it's not always going to be pretty."

Brassard, back in the lineup after a bout with the flu, made it 2-0 at 2:31 of the second period. The goal was scored with three defensemen on the ice, as Commodore joined the rush out of the penalty box and assisted on Brassard's fifth goal of the season.

The Oilers charged back, pulling to 2-2 by the end of the second period. The second goal was short-handed, the fifth allowed by the Blue Jackets this season.

The Oilers then scored twice in 80 seconds early in the third to make it 4-2 and draw boos from a fed-up crowd.

Oilers coach Craig MacTavish warned his club during the second intermission not to have any regrets.

"And we're sitting on a mountain of regrets right now," MacTavish said.

R.J. Umberger and Fredrik Modin scored 56 seconds apart to tie the score at 4 with 15:14 remaining. Then Torres, facing his former club, went from goat to hero in the final three minutes.

"This would have been a tough game to lose," Torres said.

aportzline@dispatch.com