COLUMBUS, Ohio — They’d won four games in a row and were just 67 seconds away from making it five. Yes, the Columbus Blue Jackets were feeling pretty good about themselves on Nov. 2 in Belmont, N.Y.

And then the unthinkable happened.

The New York Islanders scored two goals only 29 seconds apart late in the third period to steal a win from the Blue Jackets, a tough break for Columbus that quickly turned into a tendency and then a trend for what has been a disappointing season.

The fact that the Blue Jackets beat the Islanders 4-2 on Sunday was the most important development, but the way the Jackets pulled it off, in front of a beyond-capacity crowd of 18,223 in Nationwide Arena, made it that much sweeter.

Down 2-1 with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, the Blue Jackets rattled off three unanswered goals, doing to the Islanders what the Islanders had done to them nearly two months ago.

“We lost one in a similar fashion in November, and, you know, we probably should have had two points there,” said defenseman Ivan Provorov, whose goal with 4:33 remaining tied the score at two and seemed to swell Columbus’ confidence. “What goes around comes around, I guess. I’m just glad we got the win, and hopefully it’ll give us a boost for the next few games.”

Kirill Marchenko had two goals, Cole Sillinger added an empty net goal (with 1:06 remaining) and Denton Mateychuk and Sean Monahan each had two assists for the Blue Jackets, who have won two straight in regulation for the first time since Oct. 29-Nov. 1. Those two wins were right before that epic collapse on Long Island.

“We try to forget the game at (the) Islanders,” Marchenko said with a smile.

That may be easier now.

The Blue Jackets rebounded from a shoddy second period to play a strong third, but these Islanders don’t allow much. Goaltender David Rittich is playing some of the best hockey of his career, and the Islanders do well to clog up the middle and protect the net.

The Islanders blocked 20 shots on Sunday. It felt like 50. However, they only got a piece of Provorov’s shot from the high slot, and that made all the difference. The puck hit something on its path toward the net, but the Blue Jackets had Sillinger and Dmitri Voronkov stacked in the between the circles with the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas and Scott Mayfield, creating quite the screen in front of Rittich, who seemed more surprised than anybody when the puck got behind him.

“I just shot quick, hoping to get it to the net and get a few lucky bounces, and it went in,” Provorov said. “I could see the net, yes, but there were a lot of players in front of it. I think we’ve been missing a few greasy goals, kind of lucky goals, in the first half (of the season) before Christmas. It’s nice to get one of those, and hopefully we’ll get a few more of those moving forward.”

Nationwide Arena came to life with Provorov’s goal, but they went next-level just a short while later.