Sergei Bobrovsky had started the past six season openers for Columbus, but Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella decided to save him for the home opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
"That game could have gone in any direction in overtime, but [Korpisalo] was terrific," Tortorella said. "He made a couple really great saves."
After Korpisalo stopped Danny DeKeyser, Gustav Nyquist and Trevor Daley, the Blue Jackets were able to move the puck into the Detroit end for an extended period and Panarin took advantage of the tired Red Wings.
"They trapped us out there for a while, but you have to be able to handle that," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We can't let the best player in the game get a shot like that in overtime."
Cam Atkinson and Josh Anderson also scored for Columbus, which outshot Detroit 39-20.
"We had full control of the game," Atkinson said. "We had plenty of chances, and probably should have scored more, but Howard is a great goalie."
Dennis Cholowski, one of five Red Wings making their NHL debut, scored for Detroit. Tyler Bertuzzi also scored, Dylan Larkin and Nyquist each had two assists, and Howard made 36 saves.
"[Howard] made some great saves for us," forward Justin Abdelkader said. "We were fortunate to get a point because we have to be better than that. They outshot us 2-1."
The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead on Atkinson's power-play goal at 5:12 of the first period. Pierre-Luc Dubois sent a pass from behind the net and Atkinson scored on a one-timer from the right face-off dot.
Cholowski made it 1-1 at 7:46 of the second period off Larkin's pass.
