P.K. Subban was right. The star defenceman guaranteed a Game 3 win at home, and his teammates followed through with just that as the Nashville Predators defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 to make the series 2-1 with their first-ever Cup Final victory.
And boy, was it loud.
Here are five things we learned from a fun night of hockey in Smashville, which will go down in Nashville lore.
Rinne gets redemption
It’s been a rough week for Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne as he went from game-saver in the first few rounds of the post-season to, well, not very good in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
He found his confidence in Game 3. Turns out, he’d just left it at home.
After a bit of a shaky start that saw Jake Guentzel score off a rebound less than three minutes into the matchup, Rinne was solid. Guentzel’s would be the only goal to get past the 34-year-old. In total, he stopped 27 or 28 shots for the win, giving him a record of 12-1 in his past 13 home playoff games.
NHL on Twitter
Gnash knows the drill. All hail Pekka Rinne. #StanleyCup https://t.co/zUSp8GKwZ9
“He was terrific,” said Predators coach Peter Laviolette. “I said it after Game 2. I said he’s been the backbone for our team. He’s been excellent. I said it yesterday.
“His game tonight was rock solid. He saw the puck well. He moved well. He got out and stopped pucks. He set up pucks for our defencemen. He made timely saves.”
Rinne talked about the important victory as well as some of those timely saves with Sportsnet’s David Amber after the game:
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Guentzel inches closer to history
Jake Guentzel has made for a pretty great story this post-season—one he continued to write Saturday night. The Penguins rookie went into Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final with a dozen playoff goals to his name and two rookie records within reach.
It didn’t take him long to get on the scoreboard in Game 3 as he buried a rebound just 2:46 into the first period. The 22-year-old has now scored in all three Cup Final games, which includes game-winners in Games 1 and 2.
NHL Public Relations on Twitter
Jake Guentzel is 2nd rookie to score in 1st 3 games of #StanleyCup Final since NHL took control of trophy in 1926-27 (Dino Ciccarelli, 1981)
Fun fact: Guentzel has single-handedly scored more goals on Pekka Rinne in this post-season (four goals in three games) than the entire Chicago Blackhawks roster managed in Round 1 (three goals in four games).
Jeopardy! Sports on Twitter
Who is: Jake Guentzel?” #JeopardySports #StanleyCup
Another cool stat: Guentzel now accounts for 40 per cent of the Penguins’ goals against the Predators this series.
Cue the Conn Smythe calls.
Josi comes up big
The Predators have been getting offence from their defence all season long, and Saturday was Roman Josi’s turn.
The blueliner scored a power-play marker early in the second period to tied the game 1-1, and then got an assist Frederick Gaudreau’s goal 42 seconds later to take the lead. (Watch them at the top of this post.)
He would finish the game with a goal and two assists.
Crosby, Malkin held shot-less
The Predators managed to contain two of Pittsburgh’s most dangerous scorers on Saturday, keeping both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin shot-less through 60 minutes of play.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked about it after the game, and had this to say:
“I thought they had some attempts. They certainly had some attempts that they didn’t get to the net. I think that the power play didn’t get enough zone time to give them the opportunity on the power play. My feeling, or at least my observation of coaching these guys, is when they have success on the power play, it helps their overall game, their 5-on-5 game. It gives them confidence. They feel the puck.
“We haven’t had the success that we would like here in this early part of the series. We certainly got to figure that out as a group. I believe we will.
“But I thought they had some looks. They had some attempts. They didn’t hit the net, obviously. Those are important guys for us. We want them to get pucks on the net because they have the ability to score.”
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Nashville knows how to throw a party
Nashville has been on display as a thriving hockey town all post-season, but they really ramped it up to host their first Stanley Cup Final home game.
The pre-game scene around town looked pretty incredible, and the party inside Bridgestone Arena was even wilder—and pretty creative, too:
Preds fan or not, you’ve gotta admit: these fans are fun.
What a night. Let’s do it all again Monday.