It was a rollercoaster ride of emotion Friday night as the Columbus Blue Jackets played its home opener against the Nashville Predators. Before the game, the organization honored its late founder John. H. McConnell with a tribute and the traditional opening night introductions.

Once the game began, rookies Nikita Filatov and Jakub Voracek each scored and captain Rick Nash scored two to give Columbus a four-goal cushion. The Predators rallied to get within a goal early in the third but get no closer as the Jackets won 5-3 in front of 17,930.

“It felt bizarre,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “It was entertaining as hell and wildly exciting and that’s probably what it’s going to be for a little while. A few more like this and they are going to put us in the loony bin.”

The win ended a streak of 16 straight (15-0-1) where Nashville has earned at least a point against Columbus.

Jason Chimera scored the Jackets other goal, while Kristian Huselius and Fredrik Modin each had two assists.

The win was costly, as goaltender Pascal Leclaire left the game with five minutes left with a bruised right thumb after trying to catch a puck after he lost his stick. He is listed as day-to-day and Dan LaCosta is being recalled to back up Fredrick Norrena tonight in Nashville. Christian Backman was also injured with a lower-body injury.

Filatov scored in his first National Hockey League game and his third goal in three professional games, including two in Syracuse.

“It felt pretty good, not only because of the goal but the team won,” Filatov said. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment—for this game—and I want to help out where I can.”

Huselius fed Nash on a two-on-three rush at 4:25 to give Columbus a 1-0 lead.

Filatov and Voracek then scored eight seconds apart to put the Nationwide Arena crowd into a fury. The two tallies set a new franchise record for two consecutive goals, previously set by David Vyborny and Sergei Fedorov against Los Angeles in February of 2006.

At 14:18, Modin skated around the goal and fed Filatov, who beat Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne on the stick side with a one-timer. Filatov celebrated his first NHL goal with an animated fist pump celebration.

As the arena celebrated, Derick Brassard hit Voracek with a centering pass in the slot and went top shelf. The second goal prompted Predators coach Barry Trotz to yank Rinne in favor of usual starter Dan Ellis.

“This is exactly what we need,” Nash said of the scoring of the rookies. “We need the young guys to step up and help us offensively and defensively. It’s nice to see the draft picks start to come through and play well.”

Nash scored his second of the game 23 seconds into the second period on the power play. He took the puck at the board and passed to Huselius and a skated toward the crease. Huselius passed the puck back and Nash beat Ellis through traffic.

Nashville’s offense finally awoke with goals from Greg de Vries and Scott Nichol in a span of 11 seconds. J.P. Dumont opened the third period with a goal to pull the Predators to within 4-3.

“I though we gave them three pretty easy goals,” Trotz said. “Two of them came on the power play. I though we came back pretty well, but obviously the fifth goal was a big one.”

Chimera stopped the Predators’ run with a power play goal at 8:49 of the third period to put the Jackets up 5-3. Modin, who walked the goal line and passed to Kris Russell, set up the goal. The defenseman redirected the puck to Chimera’s stick and into the goal.

As for breaking the over two-year streak to Nashville, Mike Commodore put it best.

“To be honest, I don’t care,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned I’m 1-0 as a Blue Jackets against Nashville. “I know a lot of past times were tough and they obviously dominated the series and that counts for something; good for them. But as far as I'm concerned ... I really don’t care.”

Commodore is one of 11 on the ice that was not apart of the two years of losing against the Predators.

The Jackets return home to host Vancouver Tuesday at 7 p.m.