It could be a springboard victory. It could be the kind of win that propels the Blue Jackets to a new level of confidence and competitiveness. Only time will tell.

But this much is known: With each passing day, the presence of rookie goaltender Steve Mason continues to loom larger and larger.

Last night, Mason made 47 saves -- the third-most in franchise history -- and kept the Blue Jackets in a wild and woolly game long enough to overcome a 1-0 deficit in the third period.

R.J. Umberger buried the winner at 2:55 of overtime, capping a 2-on-1 rush with Kristian Huselius.

"Mase is the reason we won this game, no doubt about that," Umberger said. "If he doesn't play like he did tonight, there is no overtime. I think that's fair to say."

Mason said he didn't feel very good in warm-ups. And there are a few things he'll work on, mostly puck-handling and communication with his defensemen.

But he made 35 saves in the final two periods, turned away nine shots on goal by Sharks defenseman Rob Blake and was the Blue Jackets' best penalty-killer.

"He's the real deal," center Michael Peca said.

Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock wouldn't call it Mason's best game. When a goalie is 9-5-1 with a .929 save percentage, as Mason is, there aren't many rotten apples in the basket.

"Quite frankly, they all look the same to me," Hitchcock said. "He's there, the shooter is there, they don't see much, he makes the save, there are no big rebounds. He knows where the puck is all the time."

And then Hitchcock dropped the "Well, yeah!" line of the night.

"Without throwing too many bouquets his way," Hitchcock said, "I think we have to come to an understanding that we have a very good goalie. He's going to help us win games."

The Sharks finally got a puck past Mason on their 35th shot. Devin Setoguchi dropped the puck to Patrick Marleau and headed straight to the net. Marleau fed Blake on the right circle, and Blake centered the puck to Setoguchi for the tap-in.

The key to the game was how the Blue Jackets responded to being down 1-0. If anything, they played their best hockey of the night.

At 12:32 of the third, they scored to make it 1-1. The goal was created by Rick Nash anticipating a Sharks clearing attempt and cutting it off at the half-wall.

With the Sharks vacating the zone, Nash found rookie Jake Voracek in the high slot. Voracek drew a defender and set up Peca for a one-timer that made it under the right arm of Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

Huselius spent part of early yesterday studying Nabokov, noticing that he comes way out of the net to confront shooters. Early in the game, he did just that to thwart a Huselius scoring chance.

This was going through Huselius' mind as he and Umberger came down the ice in overtime:

"Once I got the puck over to R.J., I knew it was over," Huselius said. "It was basically an empty net."

The Blue Jackets quickly packed their bags and flew to Dallas, where they play the Stars tonight.

"I don't know if this takes us to another level," Mason said. "It's one game. And two- or three-game winning streaks don't cut it. We have to put a string of games together now."

aportzline@dispatch.com