Cam Atkinson scored two goals and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves and the Blue Jackets stayed alive in the Western Conference playoff race with a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Mark Letestu snapped a 1-1 tie in the third period for the game-winner.

Before the game ended, the Stars were eliminated from playoff contention when Detroit defeated Nashville 5-2, moving past Minnesota into seventh in the Western Conference.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I don’t think,” said goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who made 32 saves in a losing effort. “It feels bad right now and I’m sure it feels even worse tomorrow.”

The Blue Jackets are even in points with the Wild, who hold eighth place due to the non-shootout wins tiebreaker.

Columbus needs to beat the Predators on Saturday, and have the Stars beat the Red Wings in regulation on Saturday, or have the Wild earn no more than one point in their two remaining games, to earn just the second postseason berth in franchise history and first since 2009.

“Our players have earned this opportunity,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “Granted, we still need some help, but it’s going to make for a great environment on Saturday in our building.”

Making the playoffs would cap off a remarkable turnaround for Columbus, which started the season 5-12-2 and was last overall in the NHL in late February, before reeling off an 18-5-5 run since to make an improbable bid for a postseason berth.

“It feels great. You can only control what you can control and that’s what we’re doing,” said Atkinson, who had a game-high seven shots on goal. “We’re doing our job and that’s all we can do. I felt like I probably should have had six or seven tonight but I scored when it counted. It’s exciting to score but it’s even better to win games.”

The Blue Jackets, which concluded a six-game road trip with a 5-1-0 record, got two third-period goals from its league-worst power play to secure the triumph.

“We came in here, did our job and we won our game,” said center Brandon Dubinsky, who added two assists. “We’re going to have to do it again on Saturday. Hell of a job by these guys, six-game road trip, 5-1 against some damn good teams, really proud of these guys. The job’s not done, but we gave ourselves an opportunity.”

Jamie Benn scored for the Stars, who have lost four straight (0-3-1) to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight season, the longest drought in franchise history.

“We were in every single game and the guys battled so hard for that last stretch,” winger Eric Nystrom said. “We just came up a little short and got zero help — it was just the combination of everything going against us. We got so many good, young guys coming up, so much character, that we’re going in the right direction.”

The Stars knew their fate by the time the third period started and that’s when Columbus seized control of the game.

“To be honest, we knew after the second period and I think most of our players did too,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “However, at the moment, the loss stings. You’re focused on this game. And we were a little flat in the third, maybe for a reason though.”

Letestu’s 13th goal of the season snapped a 1-1 tie at 7:56 of the third, just three seconds after Stephane Robidas entered the penalty box for an interference penalty. Dubinsky won the faceoff, pulling the puck back to Letestu at the right point for a slap shot that appeared to nick off Nystrom’s stick and sailed over Lehtonen’s glove.

“If they win the draw, it’s 30 seconds off the kill. So he makes a good draw and I just try to get it on there as quick as possible,” Letestu said of Dubinsky. “We try to make an effort to get a lot of pucks on the net on the power play and it just happened to hit Nystrom’s stick on the way through and changed direction.”

The goal snapped a 1-for-22 power play drought for Columbus.

Bobrovsky came up with a big pad save at 10:10 to preserve the Columbus advantage, denying Ray Whitney’s wrist shot from the slot.

A Nystrom interference penalty with 2:49 remaining put the Blue Jackets back on the power play and Atkinson capitalized on the opportunity with 1:40 to go.

After Lehtonen stopped Jack Johnson’s shot from the left point, the rebound came out to the left of the crease, right to Atkinson, who tucked it just inside the left post for his eighth goal of the season.

“It ended up being the difference in the game,” Richards said of the power play. “We got two and we had changed some things. And we had a good play there in the third period, shooting the puck, simple plays, getting the puck to the net.”

After falling behind on the game’s opening shift, the Stars tied it on the power play at 8:43 of the second period. Erik Cole’s pass into the slot from the right faceoff circle deflected off Atkinson’s stick and bounced right to Benn at the left post for an easy tap-in.

Benn’s 12th goal of the season — and fourth in the past six games — swung the momentum Dallas’ way and it continued to press throughout the period, but Bobrovsky shut the door.

The Blue Jackets jumped on top immediately, as Atkinson scored just 19 seconds into the opening period. Lehtonen stopped Blake Comeau’s wrist shot from the slot, but left a rebound next to him in the crease and Atkinson pounced on it, jamming it home for a 1-0 lead.

“Of course, that’s not what you want to do right on the first shift,” Lehtonen said. “I felt like I made a couple of good saves right before that, and then I just lost the puck.”

Game notes

Bobrovsky, considered a Vezina Trophy candidate as the NHL’s top goaltender, entered with a 16-5-3 record since March 1, with a 1.65 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage, as well as four shutouts. … The Stars honored former D Richard Matvichuk as part of their 20th anniversary all-time team. Matvichuk, who played in Dallas from 1993-2004 as part of a 14-year NHL career, was part of the franchise’s only Stanley Cup team in 1999.

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Johansen scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:37 remaining after a turnover by Joe Pavelski, and the Blue Jackets overcame a blown two-goal lead in the third period to beat the San Jose Sharks 4-3 on Sunday night.

“It feels like a little bit of destiny with this team,” said forward R.J. Umberger, who assisted on the winning goal. “We’re just a very confident team. We feel like we are underdogs every night. We’re proving people wrong. This team believes a lot and it just feels like our destiny that we’re to make the playoffs. We want to make it more than anything.”

Mark Letestu scored twice and Vinny Prospal also scored for the Blue Jackets, who moved into a tie for seventh place with Minnesota in the Western Conference with 51 points — three points ahead of Detroit and Dallas for the final playoff spot. Columbus has played one more game than the Wild and Stars, and two more than the Red Wings.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves for the Blue Jackets, who won for the sixth time in seven games as they try for the second playoff berth in franchise history.

The game came down to that late turnover by Pavelski, who lost the puck trying to come out of his own zone, setting up Johansen’s second game-winner of the season.

“I was licking my chops,” Johansen said. “That was for sure. I just found a hole there. It was nice to be in the middle of the ice, it’s a great shooting area. I was just lucky to beat (Antti) Niemi on the shot. I felt like it was good scoring chance right away. This is the biggest goal I’ve scored in my career so far. It’s a great feeling.”

It was a wild swing of emotions in the third period, especially for Pavelski. The Sharks rallied from 3-1 down to tie the game on his power-play goal with 5:03 remaining only to miss a chance to clinch the playoffs when they lost in regulation at home for just the second time this season.

“It was right there for us obviously,” Pavelski said. “It’s tough. You never want to make a play like that at the end. You understand where you are in the game and you understand these things do happen once in a while. It’s tough when they do, but we have to move on and get better from this and I have to try to execute better next time.”

Martin Havlat and Andrew Desjardins also scored and Niemi made 18 saves in his 23rd straight start for the Sharks, who need one point to clinch their ninth straight playoff berth.

While San Jose still has three more games to clinch the playoffs, this loss dealt a blow to the team’s hopes to get home-ice advantage in the first round. The Sharks fell two points behind fourth-place Los Angeles in the standings, but remained one point ahead of sixth-place St Louis. San Jose would lose the tiebreaker to both teams based on fewer regulation and overtime wins.

“I wasn’t concerned with getting a point and putting an X by our name,” coach Todd McLellan said. “I was concerned about our game. It’s our game that will get us there or won’t get us there. Forget about the clinch part.”

McLellan was upset about his team’s sloppy, lackluster play for much of the night. San Jose had 17 giveaways in the game with a bad pass by Brad Stuart setting up Prospal’s goal that made it 2-0 and Pavelski’s turnover leading to Johansen’s game-winner.

“Our forecheck is a strength of ours,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “If we are forechecking hard and we’re after pucks and using our speed and our size that’s playing to our strengths. Turnovers in this game whether it was them or us. Turnovers are huge.”

The Blue Jackets swept the three-game season series from San Jose, winning for just the third time in 22 games at the Shark Tank.

After falling behind 2-0 when Prospal scored on a breakaway following Stuart’s turnover, the Sharks got back into the game when Logan Couture fed Havlat in front for a tip-in midway through the second period.

But San Jose then allowed a rare power-play goal at home to fall back behind by two. With Matt Irwin in the box for interference, Letestu beat Niemi with a blast from the left point for his 12th goal of the season and first multigoal game since March 8, 2012, against Los Angeles.

Columbus had been 0-for-17 on the power play over the last eight games.

Game notes

San Jose had been 16-1-5 at home, with the only regulation loss coming to Chicago on Feb. 5. … The Sharks have allowed seven power-play goals at home this season. … Columbus C Artem Anisimov (concussion), F Matt Calvert (broken finger) and D Nikita Nikitin (lower body) sat out with injuries. … San Jose D Jason Demers, who was hurt in the third period on Thursday, missed the game and was replaced by Scott Hannan.

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This isn’t the same Columbus Blue Jackets squad, one that in the past might have let this game slip away.

This is a more determined Blue Jackets team, one that’s focused on finding a way to get into the playoffs.

And this was definitely a good start.

Umberger tied the game late in the final period and Nick Foligno scored at 4:31 of overtime, helping the Blue Jackets beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.

Blake Comeau and Mark Letestu also added goals as the Blue Jackets remained in the thick of a tightly packed playoff chase. They pulled even in points (47) with Detroit for the final playoff spot.

“No one got down,” Umberger said. “This bench, this bench was saying, ‘Let’s go after them. Let’s get them.’ This group, we’re fighting to the end and everybody knew we were going to win this game.”

First, though, Sergei Bobrovsky had to save the game. With the Avalanche short-handed to start the extra period, Gabriel Landeskog broke free and it looked as if he might put an end to things. After all, Landeskog is one of the leaders in the league in short-handed goals this season.

But Bobrovsky made a magnificent save, robbing Landeskog of a goal.

Then, with just 28.7 seconds remaining in OT, Foligno skated in on the right side of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and sent a wrist shot by the veteran goaltender.

That was a departure for Foligno, who’s usually looking to pass in that situation and not shoot.

In this case, being selfish paid dividends.

“I just figured I’d shoot (through Giguere’s pads) and catch him before he went down and luckily it was able to sneak through,” Foligno said. “It was huge.”

Indeed.

Maybe even save-the-season huge, especially with only five games remaining.

“We’re finding ways,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “That’s what you have to do this time of year. Tough environment, tough team to play against with really nothing to lose — a big two points for our team.”

Cody McLeod scored twice and Jamie McGinn added another for the Avalanche, who are last in the Western Conference.

McGinn gave the Avs a lead with just over two minutes remaining in regulation on a power play, but it didn’t hold as Umberger answered just 35 seconds later.

Lately, Colorado hasn’t been playing as if it’s a last-place team. Giguere woke his teammates out of their funk when he criticized them for being more concerned about postseason plans in Las Vegas than their play on the ice.

That seemed to do the trick. Colorado is 2-0-2 following Giguere’s outburst.

There also was a dose of motivation for the Avs, too. The Blue Jackets beat Colorado twice down the stretch last season, all but ending the team’s late playoff bid.

This time, the Avs were trying to step into the role of spoilers.

Didn’t quite work out.

“This is playoff-type hockey,” Giguere said. “More often than not, if we play like this, we’ll get some wins.”

McLeod had his first two-goal game since Oct. 17, 2009, at Detroit. The small number of fans who braved a spring snow storm roaring through the Mile High City let out a thunderous cheer.

“For most of the game we battled hard, we get a huge goal with two minutes left in the game and then we give up a breakaway. We can’t do that,” McLeod said. “That’s the kind of thing we’ve been doing all year and it’s tough.”

This was precisely the kind of win the Blue Jackets’ needed.

“Huge character,” Foligno said. “You saw Blake’s goal, it was a big one, and Umby scored a huge one to get us into overtime. That seems to be the morale on this team. There’s no quit on this team and that’s what’s going to allow us, hopefully, to get into the playoffs.”

Game notes

Colorado coach Joe Sacco will lead the U.S. squad at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in May. The tournament will be held in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden. … Colorado reassigned G Sami Aittokallio to Lake Erie of the American Hockey League before the game. … Avs prospect Gus Young helped Yale to a win over Quinnipiac on Saturday in the NCAA championship game. Young, a seventh-round pick in 2009, is a defenseman and was on the ice for all four goals. … Blue Jackets D Adrian Aucoin (lower body) left the game in the second period. The Blue Jackets say he’s day to day. … A moment of silence was held before the national anthem for the victims of the bombings at the Boston Marathon earlier Monday.

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