Meet The Nashville Fan Who Threw A Catfish On The Ice

Rookie Jake Guentzel scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins exploded for three goals in the third period Wednesday in a 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators in the NHL Stanley Cup finals.

The Penguins are 7-2 in their last 9 Stanley Cup Finals games, 4-1 in their last 5 vs. a team with a winning record and 4-1 in their last 5 overall.

The score was knotted at 1-1 through two periods after goals from Pontus Aberg and Guentzel.

"Murray played fantastic for us", Penguins defenseman Ian Cole said.

"Looking back since I came here a couple years ago, he's been the best player in nearly all of the games played", Filip Forsberg said. He took a pass from Viktor Arvidsson and danced around Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta, who unsuccessfully reached out with his stick in an attempt to swipe the puck away. "You look back to good games and make yourself feel good".

"I think you're probably just seeing it now because we're getting a little more media attention", said Ellis, who is partially correct. It didn't happen, mostly because Nashville's forecheck pinned the Penguins in their own end.

Guentzel, who snapped an eight-game goalless drought when he pumped the victor by Rinne with 3:17 left in the series opener, tied it later in the period.

Jake Guentzel has scored his second goal of the night to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead early in the third period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against Nashville. Rinne has now surrendered eight goals on 36 shots in the Cup Final, giving him a ghastly.777 save percentage - and giving the Predators some major questions in net as the series shifts back to Nashville.

"It's a bad fight", Malkin said. "We're not where we want to be".

That lead ended with 3:24 left in the first period, when Guentzel scored his first of the night.

Meet The Nashville Fan Who Threw A Catfish On The Ice

"So we had a lot of guys with a lot of games under their belt in the playoffs".

With the PPG Arena roaring and the Predators reeling, Evgeni Malkin fired a shot past Rinne just:15 later and that was it. Rinne was pulled and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over.

"Pekka has been terrific through this entire playoffs", Laviolette said. "Obviously they're going to be tough to get". "There's things that we could've done - all three goals in the third period were odd-man rushes".

"Obviously, it's very disappointing right now", said Rinne. For me, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Seven Predators fired shots on goal in that span, and none of them got one past Penguins goalie Matt Murray.

"I just tried to make the next save, tried to hold them off as long as possible", Murray said. None of us in our dressing room are fooled by the score tonight.

Nashville, a first-time Final participant, heads home with a sizeable task. Obviously it's not the situation we wanted to be coming here. There was no penalty. Bonino returned briefly late in the opening period and appeared fine when he skated back out for the second. Pittsburgh RW Patric Hornqvist redirected the puck past G Juuse Saros at 6:48 of the third on a power play, but the goal was waved off after a review determined the Penguins were offside. Likewise, winger Carl Hagelin is expected to be a healthy scratch again for Pittsburgh. He said he purchased the catfish in Nashville and carried it all the way to Pittsburgh, where he prepared it for the game.

Get prep sports breaking news alerts from the Gwinnett Daily Post staff delivered to your email.

Success! An email has been sent with a link to confirm list signup.