By Dave Seaman, Columbus Wired

The entire nation got a look at the new-look Columbus Blue Jackets Monday night.

With the Versus television cameras running, the Columbus Blue Jackets scored three first period goals and held on to beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in front of 17,046 at Nationwide Arena.

“This was a rich game because everyone was watching,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We can gain a lot of confidence from this and we can learn how to play with a lead. We sat back and relied on the goaltender in the second and third a little too much.”

Sergei Fedorov scored two goals and had an assist against his former team, while Rick Nash had a goal and an assist and Jason Chimera also added a goal. David Vyborny added three assists and Fredrik Norrena stopped 33 shots in the win.

Robert Lang scored twice and Jiri Hudler added a goal for the Red Wings, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.

Columbus was coming off a disastrous outing against Chicago Saturday where the Blackhawks scored five first-period goals. Getting the three first-period goals against the Red Wings proved to be the difference in a win and a loss.

“It turned out to be really important,” Nash said. “We just have to be better after that. We had a great first period, but than just kind of sat back and showed them a lot of respect. We came out with the two points, but we have to learn how to keep playing and not just protect a lead.”

Chimera gave Columbus a 1-0 lead 8:30 into the game with a shorthanded goal. As Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek played the puck behind the net, Chimera stole the puck and inserted it into the empty net.

“I don’t think Hasek saw me coming,” Chimera said. “He handed it right to me and the I caught him scrambling and caught him on the short side.”

Nash gave the Jackets a 2-0 lead 84 seconds later when he wrapped around Hasek’s extended glove off a feed from David Vyborny and backhanded it in the goal.

Fedorov then scored with 1:22 remaining in the first period on the power play. He took a pass from Vyborny and hit a wrist shot past the skate of Hasek to put Columbus up 3-0.

The three goals by the Jackets forced Red Wing coach Mike Babcock to yank Hasek for Chris Osgood to start the second period. Hasek stopped nine of 12 shots he faced in the opening stanza.

“We didn’t execute and we didn’t get on top early,” Babcock said. “When we needed to get an opportunity to get back in the game – at that point we needed just one more play, just one more save— and we didn’t get it.”

The Wings finally got the puck past Norrena at 13:57 of the second with a second effort. Lang put a shot on goal and the rebound came right back to him. He took the puck and backhanded it past an extended Norrena.

Hudler brought the Wings to with a goal at 12:42 of the third when he beat Norrena glove side with a wrist shot.

Fedorov scored what would be an insurance goal needed with 1:52 remaining off a pass from Vyborny on an odd-man rush.

“It’s never easy to beat a team like Detroit,” Fedorov said. “They are a very good puck-possession team and I think we caught them off guard in the first. After that, they kept the puck most of the time, so you just play and hope that your system works.

The Wings got the goal back as the fans celebrated with a slap shot from Lang 20 seconds later.

Detroit outshot Columbus 36-26. Osgood turned back 13 of 14 shots.

The two teams meet again Wednesday night at Joe Lewis Arena.