That being said there are many ways the Pens can take game two tonight and possibly win the series quickly.
"It's fun. We're excited". "We have emotions to keep going".
"If we score one, we won't stop. We always look to our leadership group that we trust so much just because of their body of work with us and their ability to respond the right way to any of the adversities that this team has faced".
For some perspective, Rinne had allowed four goals in this year's playoffs just one single time in 16 games prior to the Final.
"You get that big early goal and guys want to hop over the boards and get that next one". Defensively, the Nashville Predators are allowing 2.7 goals per game and are killing 80.9 percent of their opponents power plays. Even head coach Peter Laviolette had his goaltender's back.
"Pekka has been excellent for us all year long", Laviolette said after Game 2.
"Yeah, I think. when teams start peppering us, we do a really good job of keeping the shots to the outside, and we limit the quality scoring chances", said winger Bryan Rust. When we walked in the arena, they gave us the towel and a T-shirt. I believe all of them were odd. It had to be a Nashville catfish, because it's "more original to throw one of our catfish". Pittsburgh's opportunistic play, and extremely bad goaltending from Rinne, turned this game on its head in a very similar way to Game 1.
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Behind him hanging on the wall were framed pictures of his anime creations, "Ember's Ghost Squad", a keyboard and headphones. In a video message to his parents, he said he thought about death for years and never imagined he would live past his 20s.
The 23-year-old Aberg beat Pittsburgh defenseman Olli Maatta to a puck in the Penguins zone, passed it through Maatta to himself and then patiently drew Murray out of the net before flipping it by the sprawled goaltender.
No one has finished better for the Penguins in the playoffs than Guentzel. Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne sits on the bench after being pulled during the third period in Game 2 of the team's NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Wednesday, May 31, 2017, in Pittsburgh. "We've just got to focus on those things that we can control, and that's going to be our competitive level, our attitude, our execution, all of those things within our control". They're certainly doing it from everywhere. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has deliberately cut Guentzel's ice time, citing fatigue factors.
Guentzel, who scored the victor in Game 1, now has the second-highest goal total ever recorded by a rookie in one playoff season. His 19 points is also the highest playoff total by an American-born rookie. Dino Ciccarelli tops the list, having scored 14 goals for Minnesota in 1981.
"You have to put it behind you", Rinne said.
Then, just over three minutes later, the Predators had their second own-goal in as many games, when Vernon Fiddler's skate knocked a bouncing puck through Rinne's five-hole - the goal officially goes to Scott Wilson, but equal credit should go to Phil Kessel, who earned the assist for sneaking the puck into a unsafe position. "Obviously, they're going to be tough to get".
Finally, the Pens need to play their game.
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. The most frustrating aspect about playing the Penguins, as Rinne and Nashville have discovered, is that although they can make mistakes and bungle chances and put their own goalie in untenable positions, all those problems can be rendered irrelevant by a few swipes of a stick.
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