Nyquist helps Blue Jackets rally past Sharks 5-3
By NICOLE KRAFT
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gustav Nyquist scored in the third period, and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied from two goals down to beat the San Jose Sharks 5-3 Saturday night, snapping a two-game losing streak.
Nyquist joined Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine with a goal and an assist, Boone Jenner and Sean Kuraly also scored, and Kent Johnson and Nick Blankenburg each had two assists for Columbus. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 22 shots.
The Blue Jackets remained in last place in the Metropolitan Division.
“We still weren’t perfect by any chance tonight, but I thought we managed the puck a little bit better,” Nyquist said. “We got some timely kills and the power play came through for us and got us going there in the second. Our battle level was pretty good today–, we won a lot of 50-50 battles that we need to do.
“We still can do better, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Timo Meier, Nick Bonino and Nico Strum scored for San Jose, which has lost four of its last five. Kaapo Kahkonen had 24 saves.
Meier scored his 27th goal midway through the first period in which San Jose outshot Columbus 15-2.
Bonino made it 2-0 at 5:39 of the second, but the Blue Jackets controlled the rest of the period.
Columbus finished the second with 12-5 advantage on shots. Gaudreau got them within one, scoring the Blue Jackets’ first power-play goal in eight games with 8:41 left. Jenner pulled them even with his 12th just over a minute later.
“It wasn’t pretty in the first at all,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “We seemed to find ourselves a bit in second. We just went to work and started to execute better. That it’s one thing we didn’t do well in the first. We found our rhythm a little bit there for the last two, so it’s a good win for these guys.”
Sturm gave San Jose a 3-2 lead at 1:53 of the third, but Laine responded with a laser shot from the front of the net 1:11 later.
Nyquist put Columbus ahead with 7:22 remaining and Kuraly added an empty-netter with 1:04 to go.
“It was sloppy,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “We had the 2-0 lead. I don’t know if we thought it was going to be easy because maybe we’re playing a team at the bottom of the standings, but so are we, so I’m not really sure where that attitude would come from.”
ON POINT
With his assist on Jenner’s goal, Kent Johnson became the 17th Blue Jackets rookie to notch at least 20 points in a season.
ROAD WARRIOR
Meier scored his 15th road goal, putting him behind only Connor McDavid (17), David Pastrnak (17), Jack Hughes (16) and Tage Thompson (16).
MORE GOALS ARE BETTER
The winning team has scored three or more goals in each of the last 13 games of the series, dating back to the 2015-’16 season.
STREAKING
Meier and Bonino both extended their goal streaks to three games. Tomas Hertl’s assist streak also reached three games with his secondary helper on Meier’s goal. Jack Roslovic’s assist on Laine’s goal was his sixth point in a current five-game point streak.
HE SAID IT
“We wanted it to be easy,” Sturm said. “We thought it would be easy. We were wrong. We didn’t pay the price to win the hockey game.”
UP NEXT
Sharks: At Boston on Sunday night.
Blue Jackets: At Calgary on Monday night.
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