COLUMBUS, Ohio — A strong third period from the Rangers on Saturday night wouldn’t have mattered if not for Will Cuylle.

For if not for Cuylle’s two-point effort over the final 20 minutes of regulation, a crucial 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena would not have been possible.

In a Metropolitan Division matchup the Rangers had to seize for themselves, with Columbus sitting two spots ahead in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, Cuylle, who scored the game-winning goal, was a bull and the puck may as well have been red.

Will Cuylle celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets on Feb. 8, 2025. Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

“It’s obviously a long season, there’s ups and downs, but I always try to go into the game with the same mindset,” the 23-year-old told The Post after the win, which moved the Rangers to within three points of the second wild card. “Just play my game and see what happens. I’m not trying to really think too much if I had a goal last game or if I haven’t scored in five or six games, it is what it is. I just try to go into every game like it’s a new game.”

Head coach Peter Laviolette deployed Cuylle on the second line Saturday night as part of a slew of lineup changes, but it’s a spot the second-year Ranger had found himself in — on one wing or the other — 18 times this season.

Not to mention that he’s skated on the top unit on four occasions through 55 games, as well.

Between the uptick in ice time with several top-six assignments and joining the penalty-kill rotation, Cuylle has gotten a real taste of an expanded NHL role.

This after experiencing his first full season in 2023-24, when he burst onto the Rangers scene after a four-game cameo in 2022-23.

“I think it’s really good [for his development],” Laviolette said of the increased role Cuylle has seen this season. “He’s stepping up like that inside of a game that we need to win after a game like [Friday night against the Penguins], I thought it was real important.”

Mika Zibanejad (center, left) celebrates with teammates after scoring a second period goal in the Rangers’ comeback win over the Blue Jackets. NHLI via Getty Images

Fighting off Cole Sillinger while still maintaining possession as a delayed penalty was called, Cuylle flung the puck through traffic before Urho Vaakanainen got a stick on it to knot the game at three-all less than two minutes into the third period.

Cuylle then pounced on a free puck off a Columbus clearing attempt that was disrupted by Vincent Trocheck.

Snapping it in under the blocker of Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins, Cuylle increased his goal total to 14 on the season to give him 29 points in 55 games.

Will Cuylle, who scored the game-winning goal, celebrates with Jonathan quick after the Rangers’ comeback win over the Blue Jackets. NHLI via Getty Images

“He’s a guy that he’s always doing something,” Braden Schneider said. “Whether it’s throwing a big hit, getting pucks out and then he can score goals. … He was determined, he was a beast.”

Saturday night counted as the Rangers’ seventh straight game trailing entering the third period.

Their issues defending the rush continue to haunt them, as a couple frightening sequences put them in that precarious position.

After Kent Johnson tied it up 1-1 off a sharp angle in the first period, Justin Danforth got to the net first as the Rangers’ leisurely back-check — particularly from Alexis Lafreniere — allowed for former Ranger Jack Johnson to feed the Blue Jackets wing in front for the 2-1 score.

A laser shot from Mika Zibanejad may have tied the game at 2-2 for the Rangers at the 6:38 mark of the second period, but Columbus forward James van Riemsdyk scored on an essentially empty net after a tic-tac-toe passing sequence in transition gave the Blue Jackets a 3-2 lead later in the middle frame.

“We knew we had to at least get one goal to try to get to overtime, we were just trying to get lots of pucks to the net,” Cuylle said of the third. “I feel like we kind of outplayed them most of the period. That was just the game plan, that desperation.”