Red Wings Beat Blue Jackets 4-1, Go Up 3-0 In Series

The sweet feeling Columbus had for hosting their first playoff game lasted a whopping 67 seconds.

Now they're one home game away from ending their season.

The Red Wings continued to dominate this series, beating the Blue Jackets 3-1 to take a 3-0 lead in the series.

Tomas Holmstrom put the Wings on the board at the 1:07 mark of the first with a backhand that got past Steve Mason.

Dan Cleary scored with 45.7 seconds left in the first on a wrap-around set up by Johan Franzen that totally stymied Mason (who seemed to react a second after the puck got by him).

Henrik Zetterberg got his second of the playoffs from Dan Cleary at the 13:55 mark of the second period to make it a three-goal lead.

R.J. Umberger (who was knocked into the middle of next week on a vicious but clean hit from Brad Stuart in the second period) kept it close for Columbus with a backhander from Rick Nash. But Zetterberg would wrap up the scoring with an empty-netter with 31 seconds left in regulation.

Chris Osgood stopped 31 of 32 shots for the Red Wings. He continued his incredible tear (he's stopped 76 of 78 in the three games, for a sparkling .97 save percentage).

Meanwhile, Steve Mason has to be looking for where his mojo went: three straight games with four goals. The Blue Jackets seem to be completely out of sync again.

Game 4 is Thursday night against at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Player of the game: Chris Osgood. Tomorrow morning at my office, I will go to the whiteboard and write 50 times "I will not underestimate Chris Osgood in the playoffs again." He was stellar again. The doubt that some fans may have with Osgood have to be melted away like a scoop of ice cream in June (which is when Osgood will still be playing at this rate).