Four different Predators skaters found the back of the net, but Nashville fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets by an 8-4 final on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena. The result sees the Preds fall for the second time in as many nights as their skid reaches four games.
Filip Forsberg, Michael Bunting, Justin Barron and Jordan Oesterle all tallied for the visitors, but Columbus was led by a hat trick from Kirill Marchenko as the Predators surrendered a season-high eight goals in the loss.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a tough game,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “[Columbus is] a desperate team, and we hung in there, battled our way back to make it 4-3… We clawed our way back into position, but we got a little sloppy after that. I thought we regrouped in the third [period], had some opportunities, got a goal and opportunities in the power play, but kind of ran out of gas there.”
Columbus jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period before Forsberg went top shelf on Elvis Merzlikins to get the visitors on the board.
After the Blue Jackets went up by three again early in the second stanza, Bunting and Barron tallied less than a minute apart to bring the Preds back to within one. But the rest of the middle period belonged to Columbus as they solved Juuse Saros three more times to carry a 7-3 lead into the final frame.
Marchenko’s hat trick came early in the third as Justus Annunen took over for Saros, and Oesterle finished out the scoring on the night with Nashville’s final game of the trip set for Thursday in Dallas.
“I think for us, it was a tough game, but the effort was there, the compete was there,” Brunette said. “We just didn't…we self-inflicted a little bit. There's some things we can learn and we can be better at…understand game management, shift management got us in trouble on three goals, things that as a young team right now that we have to learn and get better at. We've had a great week, we played hard every night, and we played hard again tonight, and I expect us to continue.”
Notes:
Nashville’s lineup remained the same on Tuesday as it did Monday with 11 forwards and seven defensemen dressed for the Predators.
Winger Jakub Vrana skated in his 400th NHL game.
The Preds will conclude their three-game road trip on Thursday night in Dallas before returning home to host Montreal on Sunday evening.
