Malkin, Kessel know they need to contribute more

PITTSBURGH Evgeni Malkin expects Phil Kessel to score in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, and anticipates his own “best game” too.

The Penguins will likely need Malkin and Kessel at their best to wrestle back control of a series that’s lately gone the Predators way. Nashville captured Games 3 and 4 in front of a raucous home crowd and did so, in part, by continuing to stifle the two-headed offensive monster that lines up behind Sidney Crosby.

“It’s time,” Malkin said. “It’s a good time to show your best game because there’s only three games left and (then) we have two, three months (of) summertime.”

Malkin, the leading scorer in the playoffs (26 points), went pointless with only two shots in the two defeats and has been suffocated — all series really — by the Preds’ menacing duo of P.K. Subban and Mattias Ekholm. The big Russian boasts an ugly 39 per cent possession mark in the four games so far with fiveon-five scoring chances favouring Nashville 24-8.

Kessel hasn’t scored since Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final (six games), meanwhile, and has been held to just a single assist so far this series.

“I missed a couple shots that I probably don’t want to miss,” the fully-bearded Wisconsinite said after practice on Wednesday morning. “You want to bury them but sometimes they don’t go in.”