Predators in 5: Justin Bieber Shows Support For The Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Wednesday night in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Scott Wilson and Evgeni Malkin followed with the other two third-period goals.

Could have been worse: Patric Hornqvist appeared to score the Penguins' fourth goal of the third period, but it was nullified by an offside call on a coach's challenge by Nashville's Pater Laviolette. "There's not one ounce of doubt in this locker room".

"He speaks a little bit of Russian, but I played with some Russians too", the Canada native said. "I think we're looking forward to playing in front of our fans". There was no penalty. Early in the third though, the Penguins found another gear and took a commanding lead that started with Jake Gentzel getting his second goal of the night 10 seconds into the period.

Then, 13:29 into the third, Frederick Gaudreau scored his first ever National Hockey League playoff goal, tying the game at 3. "You can't even put into words what it feels". Save for a bumpy stretch near the end of the first period where the Penguins scored three times, Nashville did exactly what it wanted to do. The 34-year-old spent the first three rounds of the playoffs helping carry Nashville to the Final for the first time. It was 1-1 because Nashville'sPontus Aberg scored a beauty, and Guentzel snuck a rebound through a crack in Rinne's body, between his torso and his arm. Four seconds after a penalty on Josi _ he cross-checked Conor Sheary four times _ expired, Guentzel backhanded the rebound from Sheary's shot past Rinne.

When the Stanley Cup Final rolls around, the starters have the net, and it's been no different so far for Nashville'sPekka Rinne and Pittsburgh'sMatt Murray, the latter of whom stepped in for Marc-Andre Fleury after "Flower" had posted a 9-6 record, 2.56 goals against average and.924 save percentage in the team's first 15 postseason games while the former recovered from injury.

"We're going back home, we're going to win the next game and we're gonna go from there", a resolute P.K. Subban said after game two. "We're not where we want to be". We're down 2-nothing. We're coming back in our barn, and we don't lose here. We're going win the next game.

Rinne stopped 21 of 25 shots.

In Game 2, despite being physically battered and bruised, and badly outshot again, the Penguins did what has become their calling card: winning in all sorts of situations.

"Pekka has been terrific through this entire playoffs", Laviolette said. "Nashville's defenseman wasn't aggressive on the puck carrier on that one – of course it was Malkin – but mostly they've done a good job on those 2-on-1's". For me, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. In the 20 playoff games they've played in, they have only out-shot their opponent in six of them.

Pittsburgh stayed in it thanks to Matt Murray (37 saves) and when Pittsburgh returned to the ice for the start of the third they, as coach Mike Sullivan is fond of saying, "got to their game". It sounds reductionist to say that without Matt Murray, the Predators would be up 2-0 in the series heading to back to Nashville, but every stat bears that out. "After that, we have confidence that we're going to score goals". A tied game turned into a full-on Penguin rout. Nashville and Pittsburgh both are in the 20s for media market size.

"We have a tough Game 3 ahead of us that's in an atmosphere that's going to be a raucous building, a place that's going to be really loud and insane and we've got to go out there and play maybe one of the dullest road games of the season and take that crowd out of it and try and keep their team from getting that momentum", he said.

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