Nyquist, Blue Jackets rally past Sharks to end skid

COLUMBUS -- Gustav Nyquist broke a tie in the third period, and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied to defeat the San Jose Sharks 5-3 at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Nyquist, Johnny Gaudreau and Patrik Laine each had a goal and an assist, and Kent Johnson and Nick Blankenburg each had two assists for the Blue Jackets (14-30-2), who ended a three-game losing streak. Joonas Korpisalo made 23 saves.
"Still weren't perfect by any chance tonight," Nyquist said. "But I thought we managed the puck a little bit better. 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. All the things that we've talked about, we still can do better, but a step in the right direction."
Nico Sturm had a goal and an assist, Timo Meier and Nick Bonino scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 24 saves for the Sharks (14-23-9), who have lost six of eight.
This was the first of eight straight on the road for San Jose, including four more before the NHL All-Star break: against the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins.
"We all know, no offense to that team, but if you look at the other teams we play on this road trip, if we play like that we're going to get killed," Sharks coach David Quinn said.

Nyquist put Columbus up 4-3 at 12:38 with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle after forcing a turnover.
Sean Kuraly scored into an empty net at 18:56 for the 5-3 final.
"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."
Meier made it 1-0 at 10:49 of the first period by scoring for a third straight game. He went to the backhand after taking a pass in the slot from Noah Gregor.
The Blue Jackets finished with a 29-25 edge in shots despite being outshot 15-2 in the first period.
"What I like about it, we gave them 10 shots last two periods," Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. "That's probably the coach's perspective. You gave up 15 in the first but you give up 10 shots the rest of the way. That's a good game."

Bonino made it 2-0 at 5:39 of the second period with a wraparound at the left post.
Gaudreau cut it to 2-1 at 11:19 with his first power-play goal of the season, taking a cross-ice pass from Laine and scoring from the left circle.
"This is obviously really frustrating on the short end again like that," Kahkonen said. "I think we all really feel we could have won."
Boone Jenner tied it 2-2 at 12:31 after Johnson slid the puck to him through the slot on the rush.
"It was a great team win," Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier said. "Everyone chipped in. It was fun to watch."
Sturm gave the Sharks a 3-2 lead 1:55 into the third before Laine tied it 3-3 at 3:04 with his 13th goal to tie Gaudreau for the Blue Jackets lead.
Jack Roslovic won the puck out of the corner and passed to Laine, who went to his right knee for a one-timer from the right circle.
"It was sloppy," 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.
"At the end of the day, it comes down to effort and the battles we lost tonight. You can tell why we lost the game. They deserved to win."

NOTES: Roslovic has six points (one goal, five assists) during a five-game point streak. … Gaudreau's goal ended an 0-for-15 power-play drought for the Blue Jackets, who had gone seven games without a goal with the man-advantage. … Jenner was 8-for-11 on face-offs. … Fifteen of Meier's 27 goals this season have come on the road.