After a season-long two-week road trip on the West Coast, the Pittsburgh Penguins (22-24-8) returned to PPG Paints Arena to take on the Nashville Predators (18-26-7). The Penguins had a complete performance as they blanked the Predators 3-0.
Alex Nedeljkovic secured his ninth career shutout with 25 saves. Despite the loss, Juuse Saros gave his team a chance all game. He made 33 saves on 35 shots.
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Nashville Predators Game Recap
With time expiring on Nashville’s first-period too-many-men penalty, Pittsburgh’s momentum carried them to the opening goal. Two seconds after the penalty expired, Philip Tomasino rifled a one-time shot from the top of the circle on his former team at the 10-minute mark of the first period. To end the period, the Predators had a bit of a pushback. Nothing came of it, however, as the Penguins saw their 1-0 lead carry over into the second period.
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Early in the second period, a great chance by Jonathan Marchessault nearly made it a 1-1 game. A miscue behind the net by Nedeljkovic gave Marchessault a wide-open net that Nedeljkovic quickly took away with his left pad. Rickard Rakell made a beautiful cross-ice pass to find Sidney Crosby with 9:17 to go. Crosby made no mistake to bury home the one-time shot to make it a 2-0 game and increase his goal streak to four games. With 4:44 to go, Saros was called upon to make two huge saves to keep it a two-goal deficit.
A very back-and-forth heavy 10 minutes to start the third period saw the Penguins find a way to get sustained zone time. The Predators did an outstanding job of keeping everything to the outside and not giving the Penguins many great chances. Needing to find something, Nashville pulled its goalie for the extra attacker. With 2:01 to go, Bryan Rust sealed the deal with the empty-net goal to make it 3-0.
Nashville will be back in action on Monday night when they host the Ottawa Senators. Pittsburgh will play host to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
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