Considering the circumstances, San Jose Sharks rookie forward Igor Chernyshov had the biggest game of his NHL career Saturday night.

Chernyshov scored twice, including the go-ahead goal with 1:25 left in the third period, to lift the Sharks to a badly needed 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

On the winning goal, Macklin Celebrini carried the puck into the offensive zone and passed to Will Smith. He fed Chernyshov, who created some space for himself and one-timed a shot past Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins for his fifth goal of the season.

“I just saw (Chernyshov) kind of lift his stick up and then I had to make a decision pretty quick,” Smith said of the play, “and he did the rest.”

Celebrini scored a power play goal near the start of the third period, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 22 saves, including a big stop on Kirill Marchenko with just under seven minutes left in regulation time. The win enabled the Sharks (33-31-7) to snap a six-game losing streak and cap their three-game road trip with a 1-1-1 record.

“I give the group a lot of credit,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “They’ve battled. It’s been a tough little stretch here. We played some good hockey, but haven’t been rewarded.”

Both of Chernyshov’s goals came after he made smart defensive plays. The first came at the 17:17 mark of the first period after he created a Blue Jackets turnover in the neutral zone, and the second came when he skated deep into the Sharks’ end to break up a Columbus rush and gain possession.

Chernyshov had 11 points in 15 games for the Sharks earlier this season after he was recalled from the Barracuda. He returned to the Sharks two weeks ago but sustained a head injury in the first period of the team’s game against the Montreal Canadiens and had to sit out the next four games.

Upon his return on Tuesday in Nashville, Chernyshov was quickly put back on the top line with Celebrini and Smith and now has 14 points in 19 NHL games.

The Sharks were flattened 6-3 by the Predators on Tuesday to start the road trip, but felt much better about their game on Thursday in a 2-1 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.

The Sharks seemed to carry some of that into Saturday, as they — after a slow start when they allowed a goal to Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk 31 seconds into the first period — found a rhythm and used their speed to pressure the Blue Jackets, finishing with 36 shots on net.

“The rest of the game, I thought we were all over them,” Nedeljkovic said. “We took it to them. We played hard, and I think we wore them down. That’s what opened up that lane for (Smith) there at the end to make that pass, and (Chernyshov) has got an unbelievable release, unbelievable shot.”

After collecting just one of a possible 12 points during the skid, the Sharks are now four points back of the Predators for the Western Conference’s second wild card spot, with two games in hand. San Jose was also eight points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Division, with three games in hand. The Golden Knights played late Saturday night.

“We’ve just got to stay with it here,” Nedeljkovic said. “If we keep playing like that, we’re going to give ourselves a chance all the way to the end.”

Celebrini scored shortly after the start of a Sharks power play to tie the game 2-2 early in the third period.

Right after Charlie Coyle began serving a tripping penalty, Alex Wennberg won a draw in the Blue Jackets zone back to Dmitry Orlov, who slid the puck over to Celebrini for a one-timer that beat Merzlikins 57 seconds into the third period.

The second period might have been the Sharks’ best of the road trip, but they still trailed 2-1 entering the third.

After the Sharks won a puck battle in their own zone, Orlov, from below the goal line, tried to send a backhand pass to Smith near the boards. But Smith had already started up the ice, and the pass went to Ivan Provorov, who fed Cole Sillinger for a one-timer that beat Nedeljkovic for a 2-1 Blue Jackets lead.

Still, the Sharks had 18 shots and created 10 high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick, in the second period.

“That’s the way we need to play, simple and hard,” Celebrini said on NBC Sports California. “You look at how many chances we got from them, we were just making smart plays.”

Nedeljkovic got the start Saturday after Yaroslav Askarov was injured in the second period of the Sharks’ 2-1 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Askarov is now considered day to day with an upper-body injury as the Sharks head into another busy week with four games in six days, all at home. The Sharks play the St. Louis Blues on Monday, the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, and the Predators on Saturday.

If Askarov is unavailable by midweek, the Sharks would likely start Laurent Brossoit, who was recalled from the Barracuda on Friday, against either the Ducks or Maple Leafs.

Nedeljkovic also had to carry the load in net when Askarov was unavailable to play in seven straight games from March 12 to Tuesday. In that time, Nedeljkovic went 2-4-0 with an .867 save percentage. On Thursday, after Askarov’s injury, Nedeljkovic stopped 10 of 12 shots.

NOTABLE 

With 98 points this season, Celebrini trails only Joe Thornton (114 points in 2006-07) and Erik Karlsson (101 points in 2022-23), for the highest scoring single seasons in Sharks history). Celebrini, who had just one point in the previous five games, now has 100 assists for his career.