The first period was more of a feeling out process then anything. Both teams had a few chances early but nobody found the back of the net. Nashville thought they found the back of the net with 12:45 left on the clock in the opening frame. PK Subbann fired a shot through a screen that beat Matt Murray under the glove. Should have been a 1-0 lead for the Predators, but it wasn't meant to be. Why? The Penguins challenged the play for an offsides. The play was ruled offsides and the goal was taken off the board. This is something that I have a problem with.
I know that the league wants to get the calls right as often as possible and video replay and challenges were put in place so that way officials couldn't blow obvious calls. This play was borderline offsides, it was offsides by maybe an inch or two. Still the refs called it offsides and waved the goal off. Trying to really decide if the play was in fact offsides should take no more then a minute, this one took close to three or four to decide. When it takes that long to try and figure it out, there's a problem and that's putting it nicely. I just felt it way too long to make the call because it wasn't that obvious and if you can't tell right away whether or not a play is offsides, then you should let the call stands. I could go a lot deeper into this but I'll save that for another time and place.
So the goal gets waved off, it takes some of the wind out of the sail of the Preds. Pittsburgh took full advantage of it, stealing away the momentum and jumping out to a quick lead. Once we hit the final five minutes of the period, things turned in Pittsburgh's favor in a big way. Nashville forwards Calle Jarnkrok and James Neal were both called on penalties for the same time period and on the 5-on-3 power play Evgeni Malkin took a pass from captain Sidney Crosby to put the Penguins up 1–0. A minute and fifteen seconds later, Conor Sheary scored again after a pass from Crosby to put the Pens up by two. to put the icing on the cake, in the final 17 seconds, Nick Bonino gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead. That's the last gasp of offense that the Pens would manage for a while.
Nashville turned the tides in the middle frame. Pittsburgh did not have a shot on goal in the second period. Yes you did read that correctly, the Pens were held without a shot over the entire 2nd period. Nashville became the first team to hold an opponent to zero shots in a period during a Stanley Cup Final since the NHL began tracking shots on goal in 1957-58. Nashville started the comeback during that middle frame. Ryan Ellis made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 8:21 of the second period, Colton Sissons made it 3-2 with another power-play goal at 10:06 of the third period, and Frederick Gaudreau tied it 3-3 at 13:29 in the final frame with his first NHL goal.
Nashville had fought all the way back to get the game even. Both teams had their chances in the 3rd period, but this play turned out to seal the deal for the Champs:
It was the tenth time that Guentzel found the back of the net in the playoffs, and it couldn't have come at a better time. By the time Guentzel took that shot, it was the first shot on goal tha thte Penguins had had in over 37 minutes of game time. Nick Bonino scored his 2nd of the game into an empty net with 1:02 left to seal the win for the Penguins in the opener of the series.
For Nashville, this had to feel weird, because they did the same thing to the Ducks in the sixth game in the West Finals. Anaheim held the Predators to a low shot total and they still walked away with the win. Now Nashville had it happen to them, so it had to be a weird feeling.
And just looking at some of the interesting numbers in the opening game, show that things will favor the Penguins in the series. Courtesy of the NHL, since the Final went to the best-of-seven format in 1939, the team that has won Game 1 has gone on to capture the Stanley Cup 77.9% of the time (60 of 77 series), the past five years included.
Game two of the finals takes place in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night at 8PM
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