The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to post back-to-back wins for the first time this season when they travel to Nashville to take on the Predators on Saturday night.
Columbus enters this game following a 6-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Mathieu Olivier recorded his first two-goal game for the Blue Jackets. Justin Danforth collected a goal and two assists, Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko had one each, and James van Riemsdyk scored the other goal.
“You want the guys to get rewarded for playing the right way, playing hard,” said Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason. “Everybody wants to score, so for us to get points up and down the lineup, our defense to jump in and participate was really good.”
Marchenko has a team-leading eight points in six games. He joins Olivier and Yegor Chinakhov with a club-best three goals.
Goaltender Daniil Tarasov is 3-1-0 in four starts this season with a .888 save percentage and 3.29 goals-against average. Tarasov is winless in two career appearances against the Predators despite posting a .948 save percentage and 2.05 GAA.
Nashville won both meetings between the clubs last season, defeating the Blue Jackets 2-1 on March 9 before defeating Columbus 6-4 on April 13.
The Predators will return home following a 3-2, comeback win in Chicago on Friday night.
Nashville overcame a 2-0 deficit on second-period goals by Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist. Defenseman Brady Skjei scored the game-winning goal on the power play at 13:07 of the third period. Juuse Saros made 27 saves for the Predators, who have won back-to-back games after opening the season with five losses.
Saros improved to 2-4-0 with the win.
Nyquist also had an assist, and defenseman Alexandre Carrier had two goals.
“Gutsy win,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “You two on the road … and find a way to make a big kill, and a big shorty. (Forsberg) made a great play to get us back in the game, and then it was Brady at the end. . So it wasn’t good, but we did some things, and (we’re) still building our game here a little.”
Forsberg has two goals and three assists during his five-game point streak.
“It started slowly, obviously,” he said. “I thought they were better the first time, but then we started to battle. … I thought the penalty kill played really well, and then it was a power play there in the third and he got us the win.”
Goaltender Scott Wedgewood lost his only start of the season in a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Oct. 10. In four playoff games against the Blue Jackets, Wedgewood is 1-1-2 with a .919 save percentage and 2.65 GAA.
Saturday will be the first of two meetings between the Blue Jackets and Predators this season. Nashville will travel to Columbus on April 1 to conclude the season series.
–Field Level Media
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