PITTSBURGH – lightning does strike twice (apologies to Tampa Bay who wishes they were facing Nashville instead of the Penguins). After a Game 1 that was memorable for the wrong reasons, it is difficult to imagine the same conditions led to the same result for the same team. The Pittsburgh Penguins should heading to Nashville down 0-2, they aren’t.
The Eastern Conference Finalist is leading 2-0, even though were dominated by the Predators, short of a few minutes of lapses in both games. But no one will remember how it happened; they will just remember what happened. And what happened was a 5-3 win in Game One and a 4-1 win in Game Two.
In Game One, Nashville held Pittsburgh without a shot for 7 minutes. After Nick Bonino goal at 0:17 of the 1st period, the Penguins failed to register a shot until Jake Guentzel’s scored at 3:17 of the 3rd period, the eventual game-winner. Still, the Predators failed to pounce enough after paralyzing the Pittsburgh attack.
In Game Two, Nashville started on plan, just as they did in Game One. Flood the zone, apply a 1-2-2 formation and frustrate the Penguins by clogging the neutral zone, take away Pittsburgh’s ability to break out easily and punish them physically. Things were moving along just fine with the Penguins only able to break out cleanly twice in the first frame.
Then the Predators drew first blood when Pontus Arberg made a nifty move. Aberg drove wide from the far side to zip right in front of Penguins goaltender Matt Murray. As Murray committed by going down, Aberg lifted the puck into the roof of the goal. Nashville had what they wanted; the first goal.
It didn’t take long for the Penguins to answer and again, it was reminiscent of Game One and it happened on a relatively innocent play.
Chris Kunitz fed Conor Sheary down low and to the right of the Nashville goal. His effort to pass to a waiting Jake Guentzel was deflected by Mattias Ekholm and then trickled to the rookie sniper. Guentzel put a shot on Rinne who failed to seal the gap between his catching arm and torso. The Penguins had tied it and it was another scene of a shot that should have been stopped.
The Penguins has been hanging on by a thread, trying desperately to get into the game, and had finally broken through with their 4th shot on goal.
Nashville continued to ratchet up the physical play, giving Pittsburgh very little to work with on breakouts and neutral zone space.
Missed opportunities, wide-open nets and foolish penalties by Nashville were cause for concern. The Predators failed to convert on two wide-open net opportunities which could have taken a stranglehold of the game. In 11:26 of power play time during the game, Pittsburgh registered just 2 shots and zero goals.
As bad as Rinne was, even in how he made saves successfully, Matt Murray was lights-out spectacular. He held down the fort until the Penguins began to get traction stopping 37 of 38 shots overall, including the last 30 in the final 47:03.
After two periods, the feeling was that Nashville would finally break through and take control. It took just 10 seconds for that theory to be disproven.
That’s when the Penguins won the draw to start the third period. Ron Hainsey collected the puck and fed it up to Bryan Rust. He advanced the play along the right wing boards and fired a shot on Rinne. The Nashville goaltender made the save on his far pad, but then kicked the rebound out right to a waiting Jake Guentzel. The playoffs’ leading scorer made no mistake putting his 12th of the postseason into the open net.
Nashville coach Peter Laviolette would say in the post-game press conference that the Guentzel goal stunned his team. Like Game 1, this goal was the beginning of a brief span of time where the Penguins shifted the momentum Nashville enjoyed their way.
Scott Wilson scored three minutes later and Evgeni Malkin deposited a puck behind Rinne fifteen seconds after that. It took Pittsburgh just 3:18 to go from a 1-1 tie to a 4-1 lead. It was reminiscent of Game 1 when it took the Penguins 4:10 to go from a scoreless game to a 3-0 lead in the first period.
After the fourth Pittsburgh goal, Nashville replaced Rinne with Juuse Saros who promptly let in the first shot he faced before it was overturned after video review just prior to the goal was determined the play was off sides.
What few threats there were for Nashville, Matt Murray turned them aside and the game ended with a 4-1 Pittsburgh victory and a 2-0 series lead heading to Nashville.
Of the two games, Pittsburgh had very few minutes of play where they controlled the game. 120 minutes of Cup play and the Penguins owned no more than ten minutes.
But the defending Champions control the series. Nashville will have to win 4 of 5 games, something they accomplished just four times during the 82 game, regular season. And if that wasn’t tough enough, teams falling behind 0-2 in the Cup Final have just a 10% chance of winning the Cup.
Their success at home might give them enough hope to keep their spirits up. At the raucous Bridgestone Arena, the Predators are 7-1 in the playoffs. During the regular season, the club is 24-9-8 in the regular season, good for 7th overall.
With a few days off, the Predators will have time to think about tightening up their goaltending and perhaps the defensive shell around Rinne. But they will also have to remain tight in the neutral zone and clog the lanes so the Penguins will become frustrated trying to get the puck out of their own zone. And perhaps most importantly, be conscious of how even the slightest letting up on the gas pedal leaves just enough of an opening for Pittsburgh to re-emerge in the scoring column.
The Penguins, on the other hand, will have to wonder how they came away from home with a 2-0 series lead. If you looked at the stats and didn’t know the score, you would swear the Predators won. Certainly lightning cannot strike three times in a row, can it?
Games Three & Four shift to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville Saturday night and Monday night at 8:00 PM (ET).
Follow me at DMMORRELL and you can contact me at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com
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