Talk about a role reversal. In a complete 180 from Friday night’s loss to the Penguins, the Rangers flipped the script by coming back to defeat the Blue Jackets 4-3 at Nationwide Arena. On Saturday, everything went their way due to the Senators, Red Wings, Bruins, and Islanders all losing.

The Rangers closed to within three points of the second wild card at the break. Five total points separate the six teams with the Canadiens, Penguins and Flyers all seven back of first wild card Ottawa, who has 62 points. Detroit has 61 points, followed by Columbus and Boston who each have 60. The Rangers have 58 with 27 games remaining when they resume play against the Sabres on Feb. 22.

Will Cuylle had a goal and set up the winner in a big third period to turn around a one-goal deficit into a big come from behind one-goal victory in regulation. After tying it less than two minutes into the third period, Cuylle’s shot was tipped in by Urho Vaakanainen with 1:39 left in regulation. On what was a gift from Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk, he had his pass in front of his own net broken up by a forechecking Vincent Trocheck. That allowed a hustling Cuylle to jump on the loose puck and fire a wrist shot from the left circle that Vaakanainen got a piece of to beat Elvis Merzlikins and stun the Blue Jackets.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Cuylle took a bad penalty that led to Philip Tomasino getting the winner on the power play in a deflating loss on home ice. Playing the second game of a back-to-back, the Rangers showed some much-needed resiliency to get out of Columbus with two points. Most importantly, they did it in regulation to gain full ground on a division rival that’s now dropped three straight (0-2-1) without leading goal scorer Kirill Marchenko (broken jaw).

After breaking up the new top line, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette had J.T. Miller between Artemi Panarin and Jimmy Vesey. Searching for more balance, he put Trocheck between Lafreniere and Cuylle. Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider played with Arthur Kaliyev, who delivered a critical goal in his return to the lineup. Sam Carrick and Matt Rempe worked with Reilly Smith.

The line changes produced mixed results. Early in the contest, Kaliyev took a Ryan Lindgren feed and beat Merzlikins on a wrap-around to put the Rangers ahead. It was his third goal as a Ranger in 11 games. You wonder why Kaliyev was taken out of the lineup in the first place when he has the ability to finish. That’s a question better left for Laviolette, who at least got good contributions from Jonny Brodzinski. As for Vesey, I have no idea why he must play. It isn’t a knock on him as he gives an honest effort. But he has three goals in 30 games. And Laviolette’s answer is to bump him up to the first line.

For one night, we don’t have to discuss the lineup decisions, which included sitting Zac Jones for Vaakanainen. I guess a two-game cameo is it for Jones, who almost surely will find a new team by March. Unlike the price of eggs, his value is declining rapidly due to the how the organization operates. Well, look at the bright side. They got former Vegas first round bust Erik Brannstrom in reserve. If he’s so good, why have three teams given up on him? Hopefully, Brannstrom can provide a better answer when he gets called up.

With the Rangers still leading by a goal, the Blue Jackets drew even thanks to some nice passing down low from Adam Fantilli and Zach Werenski, which led to Kent Johnson getting his 17th at 14:31. On the play, Fantilli made a touch pass for a cutting Werenski, who then made a nice feed across for an unmarked Johnson to fire a quick shot past the outstretched glove of Jonathan Quick.

Less than a minute later, Justin Danforth escaped a Lindgren check to tap in a Jack Johnson feed for a 2-1 Blue Jackets’ lead. On the play, Lafreniere didn’t hustle back defensively. He never does. For a former top pick to be as bad as he is on the backcheck, it’s mind-numbing. Does the coaching staff that includes noted offensive defenseman Phil Housley teach defense? Housley isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame for his defense. It isn’t only Lafreniere. It’s been a problem all season with forwards not being in the right spot.

In the second period, Zibanejad finished off an Adam Fox pass for his 11th to tie the score at 6:38. After he received a pass from Kreider, who actually recorded his fourth assist of the season – Fox faked shot and made a sweet diagonal pass across for Zibanejad to one-time past Merzlikins. It was a great play from Fox, who leads all Rangers defensemen with 44 points at the break.

With the game still tied, another mistake from Lafreniere led to the Blue Jackets taking a 3-2 lead late in the period. He watched Damon Severson take a Cole Sillinger feed and set up a cutting James van Riemsdyk that put the Rangers down a goal in a game they had to have. Honestly, as good as he was last year, that’s how bad he’s been this year. He better do some soul searching during the pause and figure it out. The Rangers need him for the final stretch when the play resumes two weeks from now.

Trailing by a goal, it would’ve been easy for them to go away playing for the second straight night. But the Rangers showed a lot of mental fortitude in a big third period. They dominated play by outscoring the Blue Jackets 2-0 and outshooting them 17-4. It was the polar opposite of what happened the previous night against the undermanned Pens.

After Merzlikins was a bit unlucky when his pass around the boards took a funny hop off Trocheck, the puck came to Cuylle. He held onto it with Sillinger draped on him and eventually found enough space to fire a wrist shot through traffic past Merzlikins to tie the score at 1:57 on a delayed penalty. It was a great individual effort from a gritty player who doesn’t mind doing the dirty work.

For virtually the rest of the period, it was all Rangers. They controlled the play with puck possession and kept firing shots on Merzlikins, who held up his end of the bargain for the Blue Jackets. Despite that, it was the Jackets that came close to going ahead twice. Fantilli had a shot ring off the goalpost, followed by Van Riemsdyk also drawing iron.

After Kreider hit the goalpost, there was another close call with Zach Aston-Reese ringing one off the crossbar. With play still going on, Quick came up with two critical stops on Mathieu Olivier, who was his usual pesky self. On the same shift, Will Borgen made a key check on Aston-Reese to prevent a scoring chance.

Following a block from Fox on Fantilli, the play moved in the opposite direction. With the game looking destined for overtime, Mateychuk made the mistake of trying a low percentage pass in front of Merzlikins. Trocheck got just enough of it to force a turnover. That allowed Cuylle to retrieve the loose puck and have his shot redirected by Vaakanainen for the clutch winning goal at 18:21.

From there, the Rangers shut down the Blue Jackets, holding them without a shot the final 2:17 to pick up the biggest win of the season.