Juuso Parssinen and Steven Stamkos scored for the Predators, but Nashville ultimately lost to the Washington Capitals in a 3-2 final Wednesday night at Capital One Arena.

The result gives the Preds their second loss of the week, but compared to Monday’s 3-0 loss to Los Angeles, Nashville was much happier with its performance 48 hours later.

“That effort and that work ethic, that’s the style of play we want, and probably one of the best efforts of the year,” Stamkos said. “And it’s hard not to get rewarded in these games. But these are the games that hopefully you can build on and replicate that. Aside from the penalties, it obviously put a strain on us, but the 5-on-5 game was certainly a good effort.

“The effort was there,” Preds head coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. Trying to build our game is obviously not easy right now, or nothing is really getting easy. But I love that we pushed (and were) determined. We didn’t get the result, but I think when you leave the ice you should feel pretty good about yourself.

The Preds focused on a better start to the game, and just over three minutes into the game, Parssinen deflected a Luke Evangelista shot past Logan Thompson and into the net for his first goal of the season.

But, just over a minute later, Connor McMichael tied the score for Washington, and with less than five minutes left in the second period, Aliaksei Protas gave the Capitals their first lead of the night. However, in the very next shift, Stamkos went to the net and redirected a pass from Alexandre Carrier into the net to tie the score at 2-2 after 40 minutes.

Alexander Ovechkin continued his streak by scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal midway through the third period, and even though the Preds thought they had tied it once again, a challenge to overturn a goaltender interference call goal proved unsuccessful.

Juuse Saros kept Nashville in the game all night by making 33 saves in net, and the Predators recorded 35 shots to go along with four posts and crossbars hit in the second period alone.

Ultimately, the Preds found themselves on the wrong side of the scoresheet, but Wednesday’s outing left them with plenty to build on as they head south to face the Panthers in Florida tomorrow evening.

“I thought (this effort) felt like us,” Brunette said. “There have probably only been a few games this year that I can say that about, maybe two, and there are parts of other games that have done it, but I thought for 60 (minutes ), it looked like the way we wanted to play. Obviously, I didn’t like some of the breakdowns. Saying that, we stayed in that position. We stayed positive. we learned some lessons and put them into practice today, but we just didn’t get the reward.

“Sometimes you work hard, but you don’t necessarily work smart, but today we worked a lot smarter,” Stamkos said. “We forechecked, we tracked, we created turnovers. Like I said, the 5-on-5 game was much better tonight, and if we can replicate that in the future, I like our chances.

Remarks :

Predators forward Tommy Novak, who was scheduled to play Wednesday night in Washington, found himself a late scratch and is dealing with an upper-body injury on a daily basis. Evangelista took Novak’s place in the lineup and recorded an assist.

In addition to Novak, forward Mark Jankowski and defenseman Dante Fabbro were scratched for Nashville. Forwards Michael McCarron and Philip Tomasino returned to the Preds lineup on Wednesday.

Colton Sissons left the game and did not return after blocking a shot near his hand in the second period. The Preds later announced that the center was dealing with an upper-body injury.

The Predators will conclude their back-to-back set Thursday night in Florida when they take on the Panthers.