Steve Sullivan has 7th career 3-goal game to propel Nashville over Columbus, 5-3

Sullivan scores three times in Predators’ win

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Longtime Blue Jackets nemesis Steve Sullivan had three goals for the seventh time in his career, leading the Nashville Predators past Columbus 5-3 on Monday night.

In just 39 career games against the Blue Jackets, Sullivan has 16 goals and 27 assists — more points than against any other opponent in his 797-game career.

Patric Hornqvist and Ryan Jones also had goals for the Predators, who have won all three meetings this season, the first two by matching 4-3 shootout scores.

Antoine Vermette, Jakub Voracek and R.J. Umberger scored for Columbus, which has won only two of its last 13 games.

The Predators have dominated the Blue Jackets throughout the nine-year series, going 8-2-2 in their last 12 visits to Columbus in addition to winning their last 13 at home.

Dan Ellis had 28 saves in goal for Nashville, which improved to 14-2-1 when scoring the first goal.

Two goals in 25 seconds of the second period turned the game around. A defensive giveaway led to Hornqvist’s seventh of the year for a 2-1 lead. After taking a perfect centering pass from David Legwand, Hornqvist waited patiently until a sliding defender got out of his way before drilling the shot into the net.

Before that goal could be announced, Sullivan notched his second of the night when he rammed in a rebound of Martin Erat’s shot.

After Columbus cut the lead to a goal, Sullivan was in the high slot when he took a feed from Francis Bouillon for a one-timer.

A lone Nashville fan tossed a hat onto the ice several minutes later.

Sullivan’s three goals were half of what he had in his 32 previous games this season.

He opened the scoring with a vicious slap shot from the left dot. With just under 4 minutes gone, Sullivan collected the puck near the blue line, then skated to the circle before unleashing a hard shot that barely avoided a block attempt by Marc Methot.

Nashville dominated the first 10 minutes but the Blue Jackets finally showed some life late in the period. Vermette redirected Voracek’s power-play slap shot from near the blue line to tie it at 1.

Early in the second period, the Blue Jackets had 1:13 with a two-man advantage but never got a shot on goal.

NOTES: The Blue Jackets placed RW Derek Dorsett on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 12 with a broken hand. He’s expected to be out four weeks. … The Predators have scored at least four goals in nine of their last 15 games.