PITTSBURGH — The goals that came so easily to the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final — the ones that arrived in bunches and seemed to signal an emphatic end to Pekka Rinne’s spectacular playoff run — have disappeared.
Across six periods in Nashville, the NHL’s highest-scoring team managed to beat Rinne just twice as the Predators rallied to tie the series. Yet Penguins coach Mike Sullivan hardly seems frustrated heading into Game 5 on Thursday night back home in Pittsburgh.
Sullivan is 7-0 in series with the Penguins, and the way he sees it, his team’s inability to solve Rinne in Games 3 and 4 had little to do with lack of effort or opportunities.