The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to post back-to-back victories for the first time this season when they travel to Nashville to face the Predators on Saturday night.
Columbus enters the game following a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Mathieu Olivier recorded his first career two-goal game for the Blue Jackets. Justin Danforth collected a goal and two assists, Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko had one of each, and James van Riemsdyk scored the other goal.
“You want guys to get rewarded for playing the right way, playing hard,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “Everybody wants to score, so for us to get scoring up and down the lineup, our defense to jump in and contribute was real good.”
Marchenko has a team-leading eight points through 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 an .888 save percentage and a 3.29 goals-against average. Tarasov is winless in two career appearances against the Predators despite posting a .948 save percentage and a 2.05 GAA.
Nashville won both meetings between the clubs last season, edging 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, come-from-behind victory in Chicago on Friday night.
Nashville erased a 2-0 deficit thanks to second-period goals from Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist. Defenseman Brady Skjei scored the winner 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 victory.
Nyquist also had an assist, and defenseman Alexandre Carrier set up a pair of goals.
“Gutsy win,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “You’re down two on the road … and find a way to have some big kills, and a big shorty. (Forsberg) made an outstanding play to kind of get us back in the game, and then Brady at the end. So it wasn’t pretty, but we did some things, and (we) still continue to build our game here a little bit.”
Forsberg has two goals and three assists during his five-game point streak.
“It started a little slow, obviously,” he said. “I thought they were better in the first, but then we started fighting back. … I thought the penalty kill played excellent, and then the power play stepped up huge there in the third and got us a win.”
Goaltender Scott Wedgewood lost his lone start this season 4-3 to the Dallas Stars on Oct. 10. In four career appearances against the Blue Jackets, Wedgewood is 1-1-2 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.65 GAA.
Saturday will mark 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
