PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pekka Rinne’s struggles in Pittsburgh have his Nashville Predators on the brink of elimination.
The Penguins overwhelmed Rinne and the Predators again, sending Nashville’s star goaltender to the bench in Pittsburgh for a second straight game in the Stanley Cup Final. He was pulled after the first period by coach Peter Laviolette after surrendering half the goals in a 6-0 rout by the Penguins in Game 5 on Thursday night.
The Predators are in a 3-2 hole with Game 6 coming up Sunday night in Nashville.
“It wasn’t good,” Laviolette said. “It’s not the first period that we were looking for and it didn’t really get much better after that. Definitely things we could’ve done better defensively.”
Nashville rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the best-of-seven series and the home team has won all five games. Nashville is also a comfortable 9-1 in the playoffs at home, and teams that lost Game 5 of a tied Final have won the Stanley Cup four of the last eight times, including Pittsburgh in 2009.