"We had some good wall battles there to keep the puck in and eventually [Helm] gets a good chance," Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "It was close."
Zetterberg had been critical of his young teammates after a 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday for taking shortcuts and cheating defensively to create offense. He said he saw an improvement against Columbus.
"We worked harder," he said. "We did things right and everyone showed up. We battled hard. We had a really good start. We didn't really get anything with it but we created a lot of chances. We forechecked pretty good and had pressure on them."
Matt Calvert scored in the first period, and Bobrovsky made 22 saves for the Blue Jackets.
Helm scored, and Jared Coreau made 33 saves for Detroit in his second start of the season. He allowed four goals on 16 shots and was pulled after 23:27 in a 6-5 loss at the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
"I was more shot-ready so nothing surprised me," he said. "The Boston game things just seemed to happen faster than I was ready for. It was a big key tonight."
Calvert's second shorthanded goal of the season, at 15:33 of the first period, gave Columbus a 1-0 lead. He scored in the slot on a pass by Alex Wennberg from behind the net.
Helm's goal 21 seconds later tied it 1-1 at 15:54.
Jones scored on a one-timer from Artemi Panarin off the rush to make it 2-1 at 1:45 of the second.
"I knew Panarin, he can shoot the puck, so when he was coming down I was expecting a shot," Coreau said. "I knew one of their guys was coming with speed but he made a pretty smart play by slowing down so then my recoil, my flow back in the net slowed down as well. When he made the pass, I didn't have momentum as well."
Another rush resulted in Jones' second goal and a 3-1 lead at 8:15 of the second. Coreau made a save on Boone Jenner off a pass from Thomas Vanek, but Jones skated in for the rebound.
