Reaching new low after bad effort
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gustav Nyquist scored two short-handed goals, Joonas Korpisalo made 26 saves and the Columbus Blue Jackets ended a seven-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory against the Blackhawks on Saturday.
The Hawks (8-23-4, 20 points) are 1-11-0 in their last 12 games and 2-18-1 in their last 21. They have the fewest points in the NHL.
Emil Bemstrom and Kirill Marchenko also scored for the Blue Jackets. Johnny Gaudreau had two assists to give him 13 in December, tying a franchise record set by Artemi Panarin in 2017.
“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 here with a win is nice.”
Andreas Athanasiou scored and Alex Stalock made 34 saves for the Blackhawks, who have one win in 12 games — and that was against the Blue Jackets on Dec. 23.
“It was probably one of our worst performances of the year,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Just disconnected. 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.”
Nyquist scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and into an empty net with 39 seconds left in the game.
This was the rematch in the “Bedard Bowl.” Connor Bedard is the generational player for Regina of the Western Hockey League and is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL draft. The Blackhawks are last in the NHL with 20 points, four fewer than the Blue Jackets.
The Jackets had not lost eight straight in regulation since the start of the 2015-16 season.
Athanasiou gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 11 minutes, 33 seconds of the first period. But Bemstrom tied it 1 at 8:40 of the first off a feed from Gaudreau. Bemstrom has two goals in two games since his call-up from the AHL.
“When you’re just enjoying hockey and having fun you get confidence,” Bemstrom said.
Nyquist made it 2-1 at 3:50 of the second period with a short-handed goal before Marchenko upped the lead to 3-1 with three seconds left in the second. The rookie has four goals in eight games since his second call-up from the AHL and five goals in 12 games for the Blue Jackets.
The Hawks were outshot 14-5 in the second period.
“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.”