Penguins beat Predators 4-1, take 2-0 lead

He was ejected from Monday’s game and charged with disorderly conduct, possessing instruments of crime and disrupting meetings or processions after he smuggled a catfish into PPG Paints Arena and hurled it onto the ice.

Teams that have won the first two games of the Cup final have gone on to win the title 90 per cent of the time (45 of 50), including the last three occasions with the 2012 and 2014 Los Angels Kings as well as the Penguins last spring.

Mario Lemieux scores a goal in game six of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Minnesota North Stars in 1991. The Predators had 18 shots in the first 20 minutes and the teams ended the period tied at 1-1.

Fifty teams have taken a 2-0 lead since the final went to a best-of-seven format in 1939.

But, let’s assume for a moment that the Penguins finish the job and keep the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh.

The floodgates are open in Pittsburgh. The Penguins lead the series 2-0.

Pekka Rinne closed his eyes and went back to a happy place.

Just 10 seconds in the Pens strike again, and it’s Jake Guentzel again.

It was a Pittsburgh record for fastest playoff goal at the start of a period.

Game 3 starts at 7 p.m.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman floated the idea of co-winners during the “Hockey Night In Canada” postgame show on Wednesday. Scott Wilson scored the Penguins’ third goal 3:13 into the third period, and 15 seconds later, Evgeni Malkin added a fourth, chasing Rinne out of the game.

Before the Cup Final, Guentzel went eight games without a goal. But can Matt Murray and/or Marc-Andre Fleury stand on their heads for another three games to get Pittsburgh the Stanley Cup for the second straight year?

At the other end, Rinne looked like he couldn’t wait for the period to end.

A style that now has the Penguins two victories away from history.

After public outcry and a groundswell of support for Waddell, both Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and whoever is mayor of Pittsburgh issued statements Tuesday saying that the charges should be dropped, because they are apparently reasonable people. “And certain parts of the game where we got to help him out”. As it is, Predators in 6, because defense wins championships, unless it doesn’t.

“It’s insane”, Guentzel said of his two big games this series after an eight-game goal drought.

The Predators scored first, at 12:57, on a bit of individual brilliance by forward Pontus Aberg.

And no catfish have been thrown on the ice so far.

Guentzel, who was trailing the play, found a juicy rebound for the taking and buried it into the yawning crease, giving Rinne little chance to get back in time. It’s Guentzel’s playoff-leading 11th goal.

Nashville has gotten contributions from those like Aberg throughout the playoffs. The Penguins’ scoring outburst early in the third period led Nashville coach Peter Laviolette to replace goaltender Pekka Rinne and bring in backup Juuse Saros after Rinne had given up four goals on 25 shots. Unlike Game 1, the goal wasn’t challenged and taken away. Bonino was killing a 5-on-3 penalty after Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin were in the box.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan is shuffling his lines for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Predators. 2-0 is a big deficit but it’s not like the Pengiuns are dominating them.

Should the Penguins win two more games and should Friedman’s suggestion become a reality, it would be a great capstone on the season.

Pittsburgh vowed to put more pressure on Rinne than it managed in their 5-3 victory in Game 1, a win they managed despite going 37 minutes without throwing a single puck Rinne’s way and none in the second period, the first time that’s happened since the National Hockey League started tracking shots in 1957. They erased a three-goal deficit and outshot Pittsburgh 26-12 before losing 5-3.