NASHVILLE – In the parlance of one of the many live music venues just outside the Nashville Predators’ home rink, the Minnesota Wild suffered the hockey version of getting booed off the stage on Saturday night. For the third game in a row, an early lead disappeared as the Predators salvaged the third of the three meetings with Minnesota this season, getting a pair of goals early in the second period and holding off the Wild’s late push for a 6-2 win. Filip Forsberg had two goals and two assists for Nashville, which won its third in a row. David Jiricek scored for the Wild early in a fight-filled opening period, but they struggled to find other offense until Nashville had taken a comfortable lead. Marc-Andre Fleury, making his 14th start of the season, had 32 saves in the loss. Matt Boldy had a third-period, power-play goal, but the Wild fell for the fourth time in the past five outings. Minnesota coach John Hynes said he was unhappy with several aspects of his team’s game, and chose to focus on the future, rather than spending much time dwelling on the latest loss. “You go through different stretches throughout the year. I think there was another one where we lost four in a row and the sky was (falling) in and we were having these same types of questions and I think we’d rattled off a bunch of wins right after that, too,” Hynes said. “So it’s the ebb and flow of the season. We’ve gotta focus on them now, focus on our game, how can we be better? And let’s have a better game on Monday.” Jiricek, playing his fifth game for the Wild after coming over from Columbus in an early December trade, got loose for a 2-on-1 rush with Matt Boldy available as a passing option. Jiricek’s rising shot caught the top left corner for the second goal of his career and first with Minnesota, filling the rink with cheers from what had to be hundreds of Wild fans in attendance — typical for a tourist destination like Music City. “That was a good play by Bolds, 2-on-1 and I just decide to shoot it,” Jiricek said. “I’m glad it went in.” Nashville tied it up not long after that via a backhand feed from along the goal line and a snap shot from the top of the crease. With these teams squaring off for the first time since Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was injured by a hit from behind on New Years’ Eve, it was widely expected that Predators forward Zach L’Heureux would face payback. That came less than two minutes into the game when he and Minnesota forward Yakov Trenin dropped gloves. Just two seconds later, Wild forward Marcus Foligno and Nashville defenseman Luke Schenn did the same. And shortly after Jiricek’s goal, Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman and Predators forward Mark Jankowski traded blows, keeping the penalty box attendants from getting lonely early in the contest. “It’s expected. A dirty play last game and Trenin did a good job of answering that. Two teams that don’t like each other. Always physical against those guys,” Foligno said. “It’s fun for the crowd. Didn’t mind the start. But our legs and our decision making in our own zone was pretty poor tonight. It was too late, to be honest with you. Give credit to them. They did well early and capitalized on the silly plays by us. Didn’t have it for a full 60 tonight.” Later in the first, when L’Heureux lunged at Marco Rossi and missed, it did enough to set off Wild defenseman Brock Faber that he threw a few punches at L’Heureux and drew a roughing penalty. Nashville held the lead after 20 minutes when Forsberg swiped at a loose puck in front of Fleury and chipped it over the goalie’s shoulder for a power-play goal. The situation got more desperate for the visitors in the opening minutes of the middle period when Forsberg set up Steven Stamkos for a quick redirection between Fleury’s knees for a 3-1 Nashville lead. They scored again roughly a minute later and limited Minnesota’s offensive opportunities for much of the second. Fleury, with no real option available behind him, stood strong in the face of an unexpected onslaught from a Nashville team that had struggled to score all season. Fleury’s body of work included a sweeping glove save on Predators defenseman Roman Josi late in the second. But generally, the Wild were displeased with their play in close to Fleury. “It cost us the game today,” said Trenin, who was honored on the scoreboard in the second period in acknowledgement of the five seasons he played for Nashville. “We were in good position, but awareness and stick details should be better.” Goalie Juuse Saros had 27 saves for the Predators, who got an empty-net goal from Brady Skjei in the final two minutes to seal the win. With winger Marcus Johansson now on the injured reserve list after he was elbowed in the head by Edmonton’s Connor McDavid earlier in the week, the Wild called up Liam Ohgren from Iowa and he played on the team’s second line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Hartman. The Wild make their first of two visits to Denver this season on Monday afternoon, facing the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena, with the puck drop scheduled for 2 p.m. CT. 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