Detroit goalie Chris Osgood allowed a goal from the blue line, another from center ice and somehow earned a win.

Osgood was almost jovial laughing off the bizarre events of the evening, one that ended with a 5-3 Red Wings victory over the Blue Jackets.

His counterpart, Pascal Leclaire, could not dare muster a smile and risk being run out of a sullen Blue Jackets locker room. He surrendered two soft goals to Marian Hossa, one with 25 seconds left in the second period and the winner from a sharp angle with just two minutes remaining.

"Two bad goals tonight, the last two actually," Leclaire said. "The guys fought back and I gave up bad goals at bad times."

The loss, coupled with a 3-2 loss Wednesday to Phoenix, leaves the Jackets reeling and sets up a mettle tester with Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in Nationwide Arena tonight.

How many solid efforts can the Jackets squander before they begin to damage the collective psyche?

"We have had too many of these games where we have played awfully hard and awfully well and we're the one making mistakes," coach Ken Hitchcock said.

"These are hard things, they are very difficult to go through, but they help you if you grow from them. The big thing is to stick together and battle through it. It's a very difficult time."

The Red Wings rallied from an early 1-0 deficit as they outshot Columbus, 35-16. They received two goals from Hossa, power-play goals from Henrik Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler and an empty-netter from Kris Draper.

The Jackets received goals Jake Voracek and two long-range shots from Fedor Tyutin. Columbus struggled again on special teams, allowing two power-play goals while going 0-of-6 with the man advantage.

But on this night it was the goaltending that proved to be the issue. Leclaire was starting for the first time since Nov. 17 when he allowed seven goals in a loss to Edmonton. If the trend continues, rookie Steve Mason, who starts tonight, might be the goaltender by default.

The laid-back Leclaire was asked if he was worried about his standing after back-to-back below-average outings.

"No," he said. "I made some good saves tonight. I felt pretty good, but it was a couple of bad bounces. You know me, I don't worry too much. I felt better than I did against Edmonton. I've got to keep working hard and try to come back."

The Jackets tied it at 2 at 17:28 of the second period as Tyutin's slap shot from just inside the blue line beat Osgood. But Leclaire gave it back as Hossa beat him with a shot from the top of the left circle.

The ugly goals were just getting started. Tyutin was going for a line change early in the third period when he decided to shoot the puck from the red line. It might have deflected off Hossa's stick, but the goal stunned the crowd of 20,066 fans.

Tyutin was scoring from other area codes, but Kristian Huselius was stopped on three glorious chances, including one that hit the post. His disappointment grew in the final minutes as he saw the Red Wings strike.

After the Jackets were called for icing, Hitchcock called timeout to rest his players with 2:10 left. But the Red Wings won the faceoff and Hossa slipped a shot from below the left circle past Leclaire.

treed@dispatch.com