Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Penguins take lead
Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban (above right) checks Pittsburgh center Scott Wilson into the boards in the first period Thursday in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Penguins jumped out to an early 3-0 and pulled away to beat the Predators 6-0 and take a 3-2 series lead. Six players scored goals for Pittsburgh, which got 24 saves from Matt Murray.
PENGUINS 6, PREDATORS 0
PITTSBURGH — 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.
But the Predators had little to enjoy from this one.
Phil Kessel scored his eighth of the playoffs and added two assists, while Sidney Crosby tallied three assists. Evgeni Malkin scored his 10th and had an assist, while Ron Hainsey also had a goal and an assist. Justin Schultz, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary also scored for the Penguins, who have outscored Nashville 15-4 in Pittsburgh.
Rinne made six saves on nine shots, while Juuse Saros, making his second career playoff appearance, stopped 12 shots.
It was a familiar showing for Rinne: The three-time Vezina Trophy finalist allowed eight goals on just 36 shots during the first two games in Pittsburgh.
Rinne, the playoff leader in wins and goals-against average, rebounded in a big way for Games 3 and 4 in Nashville, limiting Pittsburgh to a just two goals on 52 shots as the Predators evened the series.
But Rinne struggled again Thursday in Pittsburgh, a place where he's never started and won in six career games. He gave up two goals in the first 6:43 of the game.