Pens ponder shot shyness

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - The winning team went nearly two full periods without a shot. The hottest goaltender in the playoffs was only tested 11 times - and lost.

No wonder Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan described his team's 5-3 victory over Nashville in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final as "bizarre".

And that doesn't even include the catfish tossed onto the ice by a Predators fan at PPG Paints Arena in the middle of a second period.

The fish that splatted on the Nashville blueline earned the thrower three misdemeanor charges and also came as close to Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne as anything the Penguins managed during 20 minutes in which the league's highest scorers couldn't muster a single shot.

"It's not always pretty," Sullivan said on Tuesday. "We don't get points for style. But what I love about our team is that we find ways to win, we compete."

However, the majority of Game 1 was pretty one-sided. The Predators controlled the pace and the puck - just not the scoreboard.

It left the guys from "Smashville" in a new position for the first time since they began their mad dash to the final a month ago: chaser instead of chasee as Game 2 looms on Wednesday night.

"Now we face a little adversity," said defenseman Ryan Ellis, who scored the team's first ever goal in a Stanley Cup final. "We see what kind of group and character we have to bounce back."

The Predators haven't dropped consecutive games in the postseason and their four previous losses were pretty easy to explain.

What happened on Monday night was not. The only area where Nashville wasn't markedly better than the defending Stanley Cup champions is the only one that really matters.

"Everything was there that we liked but the result," said Ellis, who described the Predators as more disappointed than mad.

Nashville became the first team since the NHL began tracking the stat in 1957 to hold a team without a shot for an entire period during the Stanley Cup final. The gulf stretched 37 minutes in all.

The streak, though, was bookended by goals. The first, a ricochet off Nashville defenseman Mattias Ekholm, gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead with 17 seconds left in the first period. The second, a sniper shot by Penguins rookie Jake Guentzel exactly 37 minutes later, put Pittsburgh back in front to stay at 4-3.

The angst Nashville felt isn't new to those who face the Penguins. Pittsburgh was outshot throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs. It didn't stop the Penguins from knocking off Columbus in five games and Washington in seven.

There's a bit of a changeling quality to this group compared to the one that beat San Jose to win the Cup last spring.

Sullivan calls it the ability to "win games different ways," but what happened in Game 1 seems borderline impossible.

The Penguins understand they were lucky. They also understand they can't afford to have their offense go dormant for nearly two periods.

Only a handful of Penguins skated on Tuesday. The video room was full as they searched for reasons for their funk.

"We know that's not necessarily the way we want to play the game every night," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby. "We'll be better."

Associated Press

(China Daily 06/01/2017 page23)