A bunch of changes for Pittsburgh from last game; Sergei Murashov is in net. Ville Koivunen is hurt, so the team opts to bump Ben Kindel back to the third line, shuffling Connor Dewar up with the first line and Kevin Hayes looks to do a Justin Brazeau impression on the second line.<\/p>\n
Kindel makes a great defensive play and starts a rush up the ice the other way. The two former Predators nearly strike when Philip Tomasino sets up Tommy Novak for a great chance but Novak can\u2019t finish.<\/p>\n
The Pens get the first goal a few minutes later. There\u2019s all kinds of traffic for Juuse Saros to deal with and Parker Wotherspoon does well to hold a puck and drift far enough so that rookie Matthew Wood is no longer in the shooting lane. The puck from Wotherspoon has eyes, and Saros doesn\u2019t, finding the back of the net. 1-0 Pens.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh stays on the gas, it pays off when Evgeni Malkin gets the second crazy bounce for a goal. Something about Sweden for him. Malkin is behind the net and trying a center pass, it banks off Predator defenseman Nic Hague and jumps into the goal. 2-0 Pens.<\/p>\n
The Pens keep pushing and get another, a long shift in the offensive zone leads to Sidney Crosby flinging the puck quickly on net after Justin Barron accidentally touches it over to him. 3-0 game, Nashville only has one shot on goal at this point.<\/p>\n
Wisely, the Preds use their timeout in an attempt to break the momentum. It works to stop the onslaught of goals against but doesn\u2019t much wake them up much more.<\/p>\n
After a dreadful, boring and awful Friday, this first period was more like it! Maybe the Pens just needed a few more days to shake off the jet lag? Shots go 11-2 PIT, scoreboard is 3-0 and Nashville looks a lot more like the last place team they have been so far.<\/p>\n
Fairly quiet start to the second period with neither team recording a shot on goal in the first six minutes. Ryan Graves took the first penalty of the game for tripping former teammate Michael Bunting. Pittsburgh survives the power play after Nashville pokes a puck in under the pad of Sergei Murashov, which didn\u2019t count since the refs had ruled the play dead already. (Sounds familiar\u2026)<\/p>\n
The Preds are playing better, Ryan Shea has to slash a player in front of the net to erase a scoring chance. During the power play, Pittsburgh gets popped for too many men on the ice, which gives Nashville 34 seconds of a 5v3 advantage with 7:37 to go in the period. Steven Stamkos does get one hard shot but then Blake Lizotte hounds down the puck to keep much else from going.<\/p>\n
Not a great second period with three trips to the penalty box and a diminished offensive effort. You can afford that when up a few goals and the PK goes 3\/3 though. Give Nashville credit, they didn\u2019t go away without a fight.<\/p>\n
Nashville pushing for a goal but can\u2019t find it past Sergei Murashov. The Preds get their fourth power play of the game with 8:00 to go but they can\u2019t score on it.<\/p>\n
Blake Lizotte can score though, especially into an empty net. The Preds lift Juuse Saros and it doesn\u2019t take long before Lizotte hits the open target with 2:48 remaining to extend the score to 4-0.<\/p>\n