Nashville returned home for the second half of their first back-to-back of the season, where they faced the Columbus Blue Jackets and managed to get a nailbiter of a win.
Play flowed back and forth for most of the first period, with an early Preds surge — held at bay by goalie Daniil Tarasov — giving way to a hard push late from the Blue Jackets.
Scott Wedgewood made a massive save on Adam Fantilli with less than a minute left in the period, absolutely robbing him to hold the score even, and then had to make several more as the period wound down. Nashville rallied at the very end of the period, with a great chance from Roman Josi. With 0.6 seconds left in the first period, Filip Forsberg and Zach Werenski whacked at each other in a scuffle for the puck and both headed for the penalty box.
43 seconds into the 4-on-4, Kirill Marchenko committed a hold and the Preds got a 4-on-3 power play opportunity. However, the Preds weren’t able to convert, and a couple of minutes later when Steven Stamkos lost his footing Marchenko made up for that penalty with the first goal of the game.
Moments after that, a near-total defensive breakdown — as almost every Pred on the ice abandoned their assignments to watch the puck — let Zach Aston-Reese make it 2-0 Columbus. Sean Monahan then drew a penalty, as Tommy Novak committed a hooking penalty. However, Marchenkov cut the Jackets’ power play short with his second penalty of the night, another hook.
Forsberg scored with a beautiful shot during the 4-on-4, and although the Preds closed out their short power play with a fantastic push, Tarasov was able to hang on (making several saves without his stick) and Colton Sissons took a penalty right after an icing call on Columbus reset the play. Nashville killed the penalty off and managed not to get called for delay of game in the middle of it, but things went downhill fast.
Wedgewood had to fight hard to keep the Preds in it as the Jackets pressured hard to end the second, and was again rewarded when Cole Smith tied it on the first shift of the third period. The Preds piled on the pressure, trying to build off that goal.
A missed interference call as Forsberg was shoved onto the ice, followed by pure chaos in a broken play, put the Blue Jackets in a position to score again, so Werenski made it 3-2 less than three minutes after Smith’s tying goal. Alex Carrier, however, got it back a minute later, collecting a pass from Zach L’Hereux — his first NHL point — to tie the score 3-3 at 4:09.
Tarasov made a couple of great saves on Novak and Forsberg, and Wedgewood had a huge one on Mikael Pyyhtia with just minutes left in the third, then another on Monahan, as both goalies tried to get their team to overtime. Wedgewood almost singlehandedly dragged the Preds there, and was rewarded when Jonathan Marchessault brought the game home.