Rinne Stars as Preds Top Penguins in Pittsburgh

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Pekka Rinne could not have been more cool. Plus, he looked great, too.
Twenty-two saves in the first period and 42 in sum were the stat line of the Predators' veteran netminder, as Rinne calmly stymied the Penguins in Nashville's 3-1 triumph in Pittsburgh while sporting a brand-new set of blue and Gold pads.
The result gives the Preds their second consecutive victory and puts them into a tie with Winnipeg for first in the Central Division at 94 points. After falling to the Pens in a shootout eight days prior in Nashville, the Predators exacted revenge on the foe they faced in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.

"[It was good] for everybody," Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette said regarding the win in Pittsburgh. "Pekka, yeah, because of the [Stanley Cup] Final two years ago, but certainly he played well tonight, and it was good for our team as well."
"It hadn't been an easy building for me, personally, and for us as a team either," Rinne said. "It's in the back of your head, but at the same time it's a great challenge."
Rinne met that challenge with a season-high for stops in a period with 22 in the first, and that was particularly impactful due to his teammates tallying a goal of their own on the other end of the ice.
It took just 1:35 into the contest for Craig Smith to tip home his 20th of the season to give the Preds a 1-0 advantage. It's the fifth time Smith has tallied 20 in a season for Nashville, joining Filip Forsberg as the only other player in club history to accomplish the feat.

"We started really well," Laviolette said. "We had a really good 5-on-5, and I thought specialty teams did a really good job, just in the sense that we were able to keep them off the board on the power play… It was a good hockey game."
In the second, and on the man advantage, Viktor Arvidsson took a feed from Ryan Johansen and wristed a shot past Matt Murray for his 32nd of the campaign to set a career high. The helper was Johansen's 50th of the season as No. 92 became just the second player in team history to hit that mark alongside Paul Kariya.

"That was a huge goal at the time," Laviolette said. "It's 1-0 in somebody else's building, a team like Pittsburgh, but to get that goal to go up again, that's really important. He's been there all year scoring goals for us, big goals as well."
P.K. Subban added another late in the third, and although the Penguins spoiled Rinne's shutout bid with just over a minute to play, it didn't take away from the satisfaction in the Nashville locker room.

"[The Penguins are] one of the top teams, and it's a good game to have for us at this point of the season," Rinne said. "There's only a few games left before the playoffs, and I feel like every game from now on is going be like this… Every team is trying to fine tune their game for the playoffs, and we are trying to do the same."
Rinne certainly played his part, collecting his first-career win in Pittsburgh in just another classic performance from the backbone of this hockey club.
"He was awesome," Arvidsson said of RInne. "Looking good in those pads, too."

Notes:
Dante Fabbro, Rem Pitlick, Cody McLeod, Rocco Grimaldi (upper-body), Austin Watson (injury loan) and Miikka Salomaki (injury loan) were all scratched for the Predators on Friday night.
Goaltender Juuse Saros also sat out Friday's game due to illness. Troy Grosenick was recalled from Milwaukee under emergency conditions and served as Rinne's backup.
The Predators will now head right back home to Nashville to prepare to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena, the first of just four remaining games in the regular season.