Pekka Keeps Preds Alive

Over the first couple of games in the Stanley Cup Finals, Jake Guentzel of the Penguins had been the talk of the league, and with good reason. He'd been scoring like crazy. Over the last two games however, one man has reemerged as the star, not only of this series, but of the entire playoffs. Pekka Rinne has been nothing short of outstanding. After looking mediocre in the first two games of the series, Rinne has raised his game to where it was at in the first three rounds. He brings back memories of guys like Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy. Rinne has been one of the top netminders in the game for a while now, but he has really stepped it up here in the playoffs. Thanks to his outstanding 23 save performance, the Nashville Predators pulled out a 4-1 victory to pull even in the Stanley Cup Finals and force a sixth game.

The game started like the first three have, with a feeling out process to begin things. Nashville broke through first, when Calle Jarnkrok scored his 2nd of the playoffs with about five minutes left in regulation. Smasville starting roaring again, much like they did in game three, and the place was rocking. Things quieted down a little over a minute later when Sidney Crosby scored his 8th of the playoffs on a breakaway to tie the game. It was a nice reprieve for Crosby, who had been held without a shot in game three.

So we move on to the 2nd period with the score tied at one. Early on crazy stuff went down. First, at 3:28 of the period, Pekka Rinne flat out robs Chris Kunitz on a breakaway. Then, just 17 seconds later, this happened:


The fact that this even went to video review just made the goal even more dramatic. It really was a great shot by Gaudreau, a man who had never played a game at this level before, and here he is scoring big goals in the Stanley Cup Finals. With the goal, Gaudreau became the second player to score his first three NHL goals in the Stanley Cup Final. The other was John Harms of the Chicago Black Hawks in 1944. Victor Arvidsson keep the goal scoring bregade going with about seven minutes left in the middle frame to stretch the lead to 3-1. Arvidsson scored on a breakaway after Fisher poked the puck ahead to him while he was falling to the ice. Filip Forsberg got one via the empty net, to salt the game away in the final period.

The biggest story of this hockey game had to be Pekka Rinne. He's been the star for the Predators all season long and has really taken his game to another level in the playoffs. He seemed to take a bit of a step back during the first two games of this series, but started to return to form in game three. Once game four got rolling, he really showed that he was back. Don't believe me? See for yourself:


If you don't know that Pekka Rinne is kinda good, you do now. I've seen goalies have good stretches during the playoffs before, but there's only really three times I can recall of a netminder playing THIS well in the playoffs before this year. Ron Hextall did it for the Flyers in 1987, Jean-Sebastien Giguere did it for the Ducks in 2003 and Dwayne Roloson did it for the Oilers in 2006 (but he got hurt in game one of that finals against the Hurricanes). The trend is that the three goalies mentioned all lost in the finals in those years, they lost in those years (to the Oilers in 87, Devils in 03 and Hurricanes in 06). The difference is, at least from what I can see right now, Nashville maybe in a better position to finish off the finals then the other three teams.

That could be a bit of an uphill task for the Predators though. The only reason I say this is because, through the first four games of the series, the home team has won every game. If that trend continues, then Rinne may join that list in the loss column, but I don't know if that's going to happen or not. We shall get a better sense of this on Thursday night. Game five starts at 8PM from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.