It’s Game Five time and somehow I’m still in this. Yes, the worst hockey commentater on the planet is back to regale you with his hard-fought and half-assed ruminations on a sport he knows absolutely nothing about. It’s the NHL Stanley Cup finals between the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Join me, won’t you? The series is tied 2-2.
As always, scroll on down for the live blog. Keep reading for the press release from the NHL.
The Nashville Predators took two of two in front of the home crowd to even the Stanley Cup Final at two games apiece. Now, they’ll take the show on the road in search of a victory in Pittsburgh in Game Five of the Final at PPG Paints Arena.
The Preds won Game Three by a 5-1 final before following that up with a 4-1 victory in Game Four, meaning Nashville and Pittsburgh have yet to lose on home ice in the Final. It now comes down to a best-of-three for the Cup, meaning Nashville is simply going to have to win a game on the road, a fact Preds head Coach Peter Laviolette addressed on Tuesday.
“We have to win a road game – there’s no other way around it,” Laviolette said. “For three series, we’ve been able to do that. We’ve been able to find some success on the road. We’ll look to go into Pittsburgh [and take] Game Five. We have to at some point. We have no home ice in this series, so we have to go in and steal one at some point.”
After an empty-net goal in Game Four, Filip Forsberg continues to lead the Predators in scoring with nine goals and 16 points in the playoffs, followed by Roman Josi with 14, then Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson with 13 points each. Josi, Colton Sissons and James Neal have six goals each, while Frederick Gaudreau has three goals in the Cup Final thus far. Pekka Rinne has only allowed one goal in each of his last two starts, posting 14 wins and a .932 save percentage overall.
Evgeni Malkin’s 26 points lead the Penguins, followed by Sidney Crosby with 24, then Jake Guentzel and Phil Kessel with 20 each. Crosby tallied the lone goal for Pittsburgh in Game Four, while Guentzel failed to capitalize for the first time in the Final. Matt Murray has lost two consecutive playoff games for the first time in his career, seeing his goals-against average rise to 2.08 overall.
As the Predators look for their third consecutive win to put Pittsburgh on the brink, here are three things to watch for:
Freddie Hockey:
An unlikely hero has emerged for the Predators in the Stanley Cup Final, an undrafted, 24-year-old forward from Quebec.
Frederick Gaudreau scored the game-winning goals in Games Three and Four of the Final for the Preds, his second and third goals overall of the series. Those three goals are also his first career goals in the NHL, a notable feat for the rookie to attain.
The game is supposed to start at 8 p.m. EST. It’ll be more like 8:20 after all the yapping. Watch it with me.
