Caps forward Nic Dowd opened the scoring at 6:49 of the first as he skated through the slot of the Blue Jackets’ defensive zone and went bardown on Tarasov. The Blue Jackets answered back swiftly to make it a 1-1 game as Mateychuk tied things up with a snipe of his own from the left circle just 23 seconds after the Capitals goal.

The Blue Jackets will play game five of eight of the preseason today at 7 p.m. at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets are home for the second time in three nights against the Washington Capitals tonight. Friday night the Jackets beat the Caps 8-4 in D.C., powered by an Adam Fantilli hat trick.

Watch the Game Highlights from Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Washington Capitals, 09/30/2024

A game Buffalo team composed of largely prospects and AHLer hung in there for a while, but the Blue Jackets used a third-period explosion to pull away. Columbus scored five straight goals, four of them in 4:24 of the final frame and three in just 1:15, to improve to 3-1 in the preseason.

The Buffalo Sabres suffered its first loss of the 2024 preseason on Saturday, as a 2-1 lead through two periods crumbled away at Nationwide Arena. A complete game recap from WGR: