COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Joey MacDonald was reassigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday, he figured it was the last he had seen of Detroit this season.

But until Chris Osgood returns from his groin injury, the Detroit Red Wings need their third-string goaltender to fill in occasionally for Jimmy Howard.

MacDonald seized the opportunity Thursday by turning in his best performance as a Red Wing, making 37 saves for his second career shutout, a 2-0 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

“To get the win is huge, to get the shutout is even better,” said MacDonald, who was recalled Wednesday. “I felt really good the first period. They threw a lot of pucks at me, I made a couple of good saves to get into the game. I thought we battled pretty well tonight.”

The Red Wings, however, lost center Pavel Datsyuk (lower body) and defenseman Brian Rafalski (right knee) in the third period. Both will be re-evaluated today.

The Red Wings got goals in the first period from Drew Miller (33 seconds) and Valtteri Filppula (11:23 on the power play). They have won four in a row and improved to 8-4-1 in the second game when playing on back-to-back days. Detroit killed six Columbus power plays.

“Obviously, we were shorthanded too many times and that was disappointing,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought MacDonald was real good. We scored on the first shift and (Darren Helm’s) line (with Miller and Justin Abdelkader) was good all night.

“Then we got a little sloppy. We got a nice power-play goal. We weren’t nearly as good as we were last night (in a 3-2 win over Washington), but we found a way to win on the road on back-to back-nights. It was a good win for us.”

MacDonald’s previous shutout came against the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on March 27, 2009, when he played for the New York Islanders. He improved to 4-4-1 with Detroit this season.

“I felt great out there, probably the best I’ve felt all year,” MacDonald said. “I was moving good, I thought we battled pretty hard. They let me see most of the shots.”

Said Babcock: “He’s been excellent the whole time he’s been up here. Save percentage good, he’s been big and square, he battles hard, he’s a good man, he’s done a real good job for us.”

The Red Wings killed four power plays in the third period. The final one lasted only six seconds but before that, they killed a five-on-three for 43 seconds. They have not allowed a power-play goal in four games (18 for 18).

“PK came up huge, especially in the third when we were down two men,” MacDonald said. “They had a couple of chances, but we kept them outside and blocked a lot of shots. When we weren’t blocking shots we were getting the pucks 200 feet.”

MacDonald was in a zone right from the start, stopping 14 shots in the first period. He made a point-blank pad save on Ethan Moreau minutes into the game. Later, he stopped Rick Nash on a two-on-one and, seconds later, denied Nash again while sprawled out on the ice.

“(Nash) is a great player, he’s a big guy who can shoot the puck,” MacDonald said. “He had three good chances, it kind of boosts your confidence when you make a few good saves on a guy like that.”

Miller, a healthy scratch the past two games because of the team’s depth, was an assist short of recording a Gordie Howe hat trick in the first period, as he scored his fourth goal in his past five games and fought Derek MacKenzie.

“I’m not usually a fighter, but one time a year you got to get into a fight,” Miller said. “I wasn’t expecting it or looking for it but it just happened. I’ll take that.”

Babcock said Miller was “awesome.”

“I said to him after the fight, ‘Where have you been, Millsie?’ ” Babcock said. “He’s been excellent. But that’s what we expect. I thought Patrick Eaves (back after missing 10 games with a groin injury) was excellent, too. So what do I do the next game? We’ll work it out over time, and it’s important to have all hands on deck.”