The Columbus Blue Jackets gained momentum by beating the Nashville Predators before going into the All-Star break.

“It’s four in a row now without a loss,” said Doug MacLean, Blue Jackets interim coach. “I’m going to try to sell it to them that we have five days to regroup, and we moved ahead of three teams tonight. That’s what it’s all about this time of year.”

Although the Blue Jackets are fourth in the Central Division, the team has a chance to make the playoffs. It may be a long shot, but the team is in better position than it was last year.

Only 44 seconds into Thursday’s game, the Blue Jackets had their first power play opportunity, and seconds after that, it became a five-on-three advantage for Columbus. However, poor execution by the Blue Jackets led to a Nashville penalty kill. The period ended deadlocked at 0-0.

After a failed Blue Jacket power play, Tyler Wright notched his 14th goal of the season to put the Blue Jackets on the scoreboard.

“I read the play that the puck was coming,” Wright said. “I don’t know if it bounced off my stick, and I just tried to dive and corral it. I knew I was in, and I had to try to make a quick move, and fortunately it went in.”

From a higher angle, Wright appeared to slip, but he gained his footing after several feet. Coming in from the right side of Predators goaltender Thomas Vokoun, Wright deeked left and slipped the puck between Volkoun’s legs.

The momentum could only be enjoyed briefly as the Blue Jackets received two penalties at 13:54 in the second period. Columbus goaltender Marc Denis made some spectacular saves, but the Nashville pressure was too much. Crisp passing between the Predators’ Andy Delmore and Kimmo Timonen led to a goal by Andreas Johansson.

“That five-on-three was unfortunate because I thought we killed that penalty pretty well,” Denis said. “You have to give him (Johansson) credit — they made a pretty nice play, and apart from that, I thought we killed it pretty well.”

The score remained locked at one until Espen Knutsen blasted a slap shot inside the blue line past Vokoun.

“I played a terrible game tonight,” Knutsen said. “I played awful, the only good thing was the goal.”

This was Knutsen’s second game back from an injury, and he made it count. His goal turned out to be the game-winner.

Both teams had chances to score late in the game, but the goaltenders stood their ground. With 4.4 seconds left the crowd of 17,256 elevated to its feet to show its appreciation for a hard-fought win.

“It was important to get even with that team,” Denis said. “They embarrassed us the last time they were in this building, and that’s something you can’t accept.”

The last time the Blue Jackets suffered a defeat at the Predators’ hands, it resulted in the firing of former Blue Jackets head coach Dave King the following day.

The Blue Jackets do not play again until Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.

Not all of the Blue Jackets were able to enjoy the few days off since they were involved in the All-Star festivities.

Rick Nash and Rostislav Klesla played in the YoungStars game, while Ray Whitney was the lone Columbus player on the All-Star team.