In Columbus, the Chicago Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead over the Blue Jackets on Saturday, but had no answer for the Blue Jackets’ Gustav Nyquist who scored a pair of shorthanded goals in a 4-1 win for Columbus. 
“We needed this for sure,” Nyquist said. “We’d lost a few in a row, and to be able to go into the new year with a win is nice. We’ve obviously been struggling to get those, so it’s just a good feeling today.”
Columbus scored four unanswered goals after falling behind on a strike from Andreas Athanasiou s.
“It was probably one of our worst performances of the year. Just disconnected,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “We’ve had a couple of those this year, not many.
“Our guys, I’ve got to give them credit. They push until the end most nights. Tonight, we were just frustrated.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves in the Blue Jackets win.
Columbus moved to 11-22-2.
Columbus started the rally with a late first period goal from Emil Bemstrom for the 1-1 tie.
“When you’re just enjoying hockey and having fun, you get confidence,” Bemstrom said. “It’s just fun to play out there.”
Chicago dropped to 8-23-4.
“Stalock made some real unbelievable saves to keep us in the game,” Athanasiou said. “It would have been nice to help him out more, but he was huge back there for us.”
Nyquist scored his first shortie early in the middle frame for a 2-1 lead to Columbus.
Kirill Marchenko extended the Blue Jackets lead to 3-1 in the second.
Nuquist’s second goal came late in the third into an empty net for the 4-1 final.
Alex Stalock made 34 saves in the Hawks loss.
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