The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
STANLEY CUP PENGUINS BLANK PREDATORS, TAKE 3-2 SERIES LEAD
Pittsburgh powers within win of repeat with Game 5 rout.
PITTSBURGH — The night started with a catfish throw.
It ended with haymaker after haymaker — both literal and proverbial — from the ever-resilient Pittsburgh Penguins.
The defending champions provided an emphatic and repeated reminder of what makes them such a difficult out in a 6-0 demolition of the Nashville Predators on Thursday night in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to take a 3-2 lead.
Pittsburgh will have a chance to become the first franchise in 19 years to win back-to-back Cups when the series shifts back to Nashville for Game 6 on Sunday night.
The Predators can’t get back to Smashville fast enough.
Justin Schultz, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin scored during a first-period barrage against Pekka Rinne that sent the Nashville goaltender to the bench for the rest of the night, all the good mojo he created during a pair of wins in Games 3 and 4 gone.
Conor Sheary, Phil Kessel — just as linemate Malkin predicted — and 35-year-old playoff newbie Ron Hainsey also scored for the Penguins. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby’s night included three assists, a two-minute roughing penalty for trying to dribble Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban’s head on the ice near the end of the first period and an flip of a water bottle onto the ice during play.
Matt Murray bounced back from so-so performances during Pittsburgh’s lost weekend in Nashville to make 24 stops while also benefiting from a dominant performance by the guys in front of him.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, as he has for each of the last two springs when his team finds itself in a tight spot, pushed all the right buttons again. He stuck with Murray, reunited Sheary with Crosby and Jake Guentzel, and stressed his team needed to play with urgency but not desperation after the Predators rallied to tie the series by outscoring the Penguins 9-2 during two wins in Nashville.
It took all of 91 seconds for Pittsburgh to get its swagger back. After a Nashville fan flipped a catfish onto the PPG Paints Arena ice — a move that came shortly before a three-goal outburst by Nashville in Game 1 — Schultz powered home a slapshot to end an 0-for-12 power-play skid. Rust made it 2-0 just 6:43 into the game with a nasty backhand flip over Rinne’s glove.
The Penguins franchise has won all four of its Cups on the road. A shot at a fifth awaits Sunday, though it’ll hardly be easy.
The Predators are 9-1 at home in the playoffs, a place they will need to be a haven once again if they want to extend their improbable Cup run back to Pittsburgh.