PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pekka Rinne wasn’t on the ice for the end of Game 2
Pittsburgh overwhelmed the big Finn and the rest of the Nashville Predators with a three-goal blitz in the first 3:18 of the third period of a 4-1 win Wednesday night that ended with the goalie getting pulled by coach Peter Laviolette.
Rinne was 4-0 in the playoffs following a loss, but he watched the majority of the third period as backup Juuse Saros made his playoff debut. The Penguins beat Rinne four times on just 11 shots in Game 1 and scored three goals on 25 shots Wednesday for a 2-0 series lead.
Fifty teams have taken a 2-0 lead since the final went to a best-of-seven format in 1939. Of those teams, 90 percent went on to win the Stanley Cup, including Pittsburgh last season. Game 3 is Saturday night in Nashville and the Predators are counting on energy from a wild fan base that will be seeing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final game at home.
Rinne is a three-time Vezina Trophy finalist who entered the final as the hottest goaltender in the playoffs, but he has never started and won a game against the Penguins and he has looked decidedly shaky in the first two games of the biggest series of his life. Rinne is now 1-6-2 lifetime against Pittsburgh – his lone win came in relief at Nashville – and he entered the series with a .880 save percentage and a 3.57 goals-against average. Those numbers ballooned after the first two games against the Penguins.
He is now winless in five career starts at Pittsburgh and looking to change his luck in Nashville where the Predators are 7-1 in the playoffs.
“Pekka’s been excellent for us all year long,” Laviolette said. “There’s things that we could’ve done – all three goals in the third period were odd-man rushes.”
Until Wednesday night, Nashville had not lost consecutive games this postseason.
Jake Guentzel scored 10 seconds into the third period to put Pittsburgh in front. Rinne kicked a Bryan Rust rebound to the slot where Guentzel scored his 12th of the playoffs and his second of the game. Pittsburgh scored soon after to make it 3-1, a goal that was credited to Scott Wilson, who got a piece of the puck before it went off the skate of Nashville forward Vernon Fiddler and between Rinne’s pads.
Evgeni Malkin extended Pittsburgh’s lead to 4-1 just 15 seconds later, beating Rinne with a wrist shot during a two-on-one. Malkin later mixed it up with Predators defenseman P.K. Subban as things got chippy with the game out of hand.
Subban expressed confidence in Rinne, as the team did after the Game 1 loss.
“We’re going back home, we’re going to win the next game and then we’ll see what happens from there,” Subban said. “Our focus is the next game and that’s it. … We’ll win that one and move forward. … There’s no frustration. We’re learning. we’re going to learn from those two games. There’s not one ounce of doubt in this locker room.”