The Nashville Predators put together a dominating performance on Saturday night and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1. The Pens lead the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final series 2-1.
Pekka Rinne rebounded from a couple of sub-par performances in Games 1 and 2 to make 27 saves in the victory. His counterpart on the other end of the ice, Matt Murray, stopped 28 shots in the loss.
Pittsburgh’s rookie sensation Jake Guentzel potted his 13th of the post-season — one shy of the all-time record for rookies in a playoff year — early on thanks to a rebound. Pittsburgh’s 1-0 lead just 2:46 into the contest could’ve spelled doom for Nashville who was down 2-0 in the series coming into the night. Instead, they used the second period to respond. Roman Josi and Freddie Gaudreau scored two goals in 42 seconds, James Neal added another before the middle frame was over and then Craig Smith and Mattias Ekholm tallied in the third to put the Penguins away.
The Preds will try to even the series Monday but, until then, can relish in the fact that they won their first Final game in their franchise’s history.