3 goals early in 3rd tighten Pens’ grasp

Some of them have not been his fault, the Preds have given up an own goal in each game.

His goal also came with three of Nashville’s best defensemen – Mattias Ekholm, Roman Josi and P.K. Subban – on the ice, stuck after the penalty expired. They’ve got a real chance to put a strangehold on things with a win in one of the next two games on the road.

Nashville’s Pekka Rinne has been the best goalie in hockey all postseason, and he’s not going to let something like that happen again.

But in Monday’s opener, Pittsburgh scored three goals in a four-minute flurry late in the first period for a 3-0 lead and then went 37 minutes without getting a shot on goal before hanging on for a 5-3 victory. They went 9 minutes and 50 seconds without a shot, reminiscent of the second period of Game 1when they had no shots at all.

With the game tied 1-1 through two periods on goals by Pontus Aberg and Guentzel, it took just 10 seconds into the third for Guentzel – who scored the victor in Game 1 – to get his second of the night. For the Penguins to be able to skate out onto the ice in a big game with the confidence of having that kind of calm presence in their net is a huge advantage for them. Nashville’s Pekka Rinne has been spectacular at times in the playoffs but laid an egg in Game One, stopping just seven of 11 shots and posting a.636 save percentage that was the lowest in the expansion era for a playoff game. But the Predators were in near-complete control. Rinne appeared porous on Guentzel’s tying goal, then kicked out a fat rebound directly to the rookie for his second of the night. Evgeni Malkin’s goal to give the Penguins a three-goal lead came just 15 seconds after Scott Wilson had made it 3-1. Rinne’s paltry record and.865 save percentage against Pittsburgh are both his worst stats against any National Hockey League opponent.

Following another fairly terrible outing from Pekka Rinne, he was pulled in place of Juuse Saros who spelled Rinne during an earlier rough spell in the regular season.

“I treat this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, said the 34-year-old Rinne.

To wit: for the second straight game, we saw a three-goal period for the Penguins that included a goal off of a Predators player, a 5-on-3 goal, AND featured a goal disallowed from a review!

“Pekka’s been excellent for us all year long”, Laviolette said.

What doesn’t is that Rinne is the weak spot, and this is how Pittsburgh wins.

Pittsburgh Penguins center Jake Guentzel (59) battles for the puck with Nashville Predators defenseman Yannick Weber (7) during the third period in game two of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final at PPG PAINTS Arena. “But what I love about our team is that we find ways to win, we compete”. Every other champ since 2008 has been top four.

The Penguins tied the game at 1 on Guentzel’s 11th goal of the playoffs at 16:36.

Pittsburgh starts a lot better and gets a power play early in the game.

“I mean, (analytics are) a part of it now”, said Crosby.

“I know what we have in this room, what we’re going to see and bring tonight”.

The amusing thing about Game 2 is that it started nearly completely the opposite of Game 1.

Just imagine how many points he would have had he not gone the entire Eastern Conference final without scoring a goal. Of those, 90 percent went on to win the Stanley Cup, including Pittsburgh last season.

Neither Malkin or Sidney Crosby had a shot after two periods.

“The limited chances they’ve had they’ve done a good job”, Rinne said. “We’re gonna take it home”, said fan Micah Sullivan. You can see how good of a player he is.