Kent Johnson scores Columbus’ only goal as the Blue Jackets struggle with turnovers and special teams in a 4-1 home loss to the Utah Mammoth.

COLUMBUS – The Columbus Blue Jackets followed an impressive season-opening victory with a much rougher night against the Utah Mammoth.

Utah controlled long stretches of Saturday’s game, scored three times on the power play and handed Columbus a 4-1 loss at Nationwide Arena, dropping the Blue Jackets to 1-1-0.

Columbus had opened the season by beating Buffalo 6-3, but the offensive rhythm that powered that victory largely disappeared against Utah.

The Mammoth took control in the first period.

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Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 11:55, and Nick Schmaltz doubled the lead less than five minutes later to send Columbus into the first intermission trailing 2-0.

The Blue Jackets briefly generated some life early in the second.

Kent Johnson scored 1:30 into the period, finishing a partial breakaway after Matthew Knies helped spring him with an outlet pass. The assist gave Knies four points through his first two games with Columbus following his offseason arrival.

But the Blue Jackets couldn’t build on it.

Utah restored its two-goal advantage early in the third when Dylan Guenther scored on the power play, then Schmaltz added another man-advantage goal to finish the scoring.

Schmaltz’s second goal also gave him the 500th point of his NHL career.

Goaltender Jet Greaves made 21 saves for Columbus, while Sebastian Cossa stopped 15 shots in his first start for Utah.

The larger problem for Columbus was puck management.

Coach Rick Bowness pointed to the Blue Jackets’ transition game afterward, noting that forwards weren’t consistently giving the defense enough options coming out of the defensive zone.

That issue contributed to a night where Columbus struggled to create sustained offensive-zone pressure.

The loss also exposed an early concern on special teams. After Columbus scored twice on the power play against Buffalo, Utah flipped that advantage Saturday by going 3-for-5 with the man advantage.

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One bad night won’t erase the promise Columbus showed in its opener.

But against Utah, the Blue Jackets weren’t fast enough with the puck, weren’t clean enough in transition and gave a dangerous opponent far too many opportunities on special teams.

Columbus now gets several days to regroup before hosting Pittsburgh on Friday.