Coming off a solid 6-2 win against Montreal Tuesday, the Columbus Blue Jackets took to the road for a single game against the Nashville Predators. The Blue Jackets had leads of 2-0 and 3-2, but the Predators came back to send the game to overtime, then grabbed their third win in a row, 4-3.

Nashville lost their first five games and, since then, have played with some urgency, winning twice. On Friday, they came from behind to beat the Blackhawks in Chicago 3-2 after falling behind 2-0 after the first period. After assisting on the Preds’ first goal in the second period against the Hawks, former Blue Jacket Gus Nyquist tied the game before Brady Skjei scored the winner in the third.

On Saturday, after a scoreless first period, Columbus took a 2-0 lead in the second on goals from Kirill Marchenko and Zach Aston-Reese. It was Marchenko’s fourth goal of the young season and came after a brilliant backhand pass from Adam Fantilli off the halfwall. Aston-Reese’s goal was his second of the season.

Head coach Dean Evason was unhappy with how the Blue Jackets played after taking the two-goal lead. “We turned the puck over constantly,” he said after the game.  “Gave them an opportunity to come back on us. We have to manage the game a hell of a lot better than we did in those situations.” 

Nashville’s first goal came on a wrist shot from Filip Forsberg from the right circle on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Forsberg is the Predators’ leading scorer with four goals and four assists. Cole Smith tied the game just 26 seconds into the third period with a shot from the slot that got under Columbus goaltender Daniil Tarasov.

The Blue Jackets took the lead again when Zach Werenski slapped one home from above the right circle. Werenski is averaging a point a game with three goals and four assists. The lead did not last long as Alexandre Carrier scored a minute later to knot the game at 3-3.

No one managed a goal for the rest of the third period and the game went to overtime. The Blue Jackets had several good opportunities early in OT, but came away empty. It was Nashville’s Jonathan Marchessault, a former Jacket, who found the net 1:44 into the extra frame for the 4-3 win. The Predators acquired Marchessault in July after he scored 42 goals last season with the Vegas Golden Knights.

“As a team, even in overtime, we had the better chances,” said Mathieu Olivier, who had an assist on Aston-Reese’s goal. “Right now it’s kind of hard to process in terms of what we did wrong exactly, but I thought we generated chances and, you know, gave ourselves a chance to win here.” 

The Blue Jackets picked up a point and are now 3-3-1 in seven games played. They return to Columbus for a big game Monday against the Edmonton Oilers (3-4-1). Connor McDavid and company have been slow out of the gate and will be coming off a game at Detroit Sunday. The puck drops Monday at 7:00 p.m. at Nationwide Arena.