NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ Less than a week ago the Penguins flew to Nashville holding a 2-0 series lead and were brimming with confidence. Back then, Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne couldn't stop a beach ball. The Penguins' offense was clicking. The thought of a sweep was plausible.
Times have certainly changed.
If the Penguins' 4-1 loss to Nashville in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final on Monday at Bridgestone Arena told us anything, it's that these final three games should be a lot of fun.
And probably a little nerve-racking.
Not to mention unpredictable.
After all, did you have Rinne _ and the .778 save percentage he produced in the first two games _ stealing the show Monday?
If you somehow did, or you're lying, surely you didn't have Rinne _ who stopped 23 of 24 _ making three saves in three seconds during a key second-period flurry, the last one featuring an across-the-crease leap.
Or Fredrick Gaudreau, the Predators precocious rookie, the kid without his own dressing room stall? Did you have him matching the combined goal output of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel thus far in the series?
Then again, Gaudreau's two goals the past two games equaled the two the Penguins entire team produced during their time in Tennessee, forgettable as it turned out to be.
Or did you have fellow Predator Viktor Arvidsson finally scoring a goal? Nashville's top-line winger, a ghost of himself through Game 2, scored on a breakaway Monday.
Did you have the Predators out-scoring the Penguins, 9-2, in a pair of games after Filip Forsberg added an empty-net goal late?
Probably not.
But now we have a series. A very good one at that. And it will resume with Game 5 on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
When the Penguins return home, it could be following a goaltender change, another thing nobody would have thought when the team plane went wheels up Friday afternoon.
Figure, Matt Murray had gone 5-1 with a .943 save percentage since Penguins coach Mike Sullivan turned to him in the middle of the Ottawa series.
But Murray's glove hand became an issue that the Predators are clearly trying to exploit, and they've done it successfully on four occasions the past two games. Sullivan could choose to start Marc-Andre Fleury, so good at home, to inject some life into his club.
The Predators beat Murray three times on 26 shots Monday, but he was hardly the only issue.
Yet again, the Penguins struggled with quick and efficient breakouts. Their defensemen, steady in their own zone and at least marginally productive in Nashville's through the first two games, did not have a good trip to Music City.
Jake Guentzel scored in Game 3, continuing his offensive binge in this series, but he couldn't convert on several glorious chances Monday.
The Penguins power play had more flow than it did in Game 3 _ it would be impossible to have less _ but it failed to score on its one chance.
The Predators took control in the second period, and it started with a couple of big saves from Rinne.
The first came on Jake Guentzel in front at 2:31, off a gorgeous, behind-the-net setup from Sidney Crosby. The second was a breakaway stop of Chris Kunitz at 3:29.
Rinne's fine work enabled Nashville to jump ahead, 2-1, on Gaudreau's wraparound goal at 3:45.
It was not a called a goal initially, but the officials went back, reviewed it, and 35 seconds were added to the clock.
After the Penguins killed off a Ron Hainsey high-sticking minor, Rinne had his finest sequence of the night, making three saves in 3 seconds.
The first was on Crosby, who enjoyed a mini-breakaway. Rinne used his pad to stop Crosby's rebound attempt. Roman Josi held the puck up long enough in the crease to allow Rinne to dive across and make a circus save on Guentzel.
That sequence loomed especially large whenever Arvidsson beat Murray glove side on a breakaway for a 3-1 Predators lead at 13:08 of the second period.
Looking back, it seems like forever ago that anybody was talking about Rinne losing his starting spot.
This one took a little bit to get off the ground. There was one shot on goal in the first 6:15 to go along with five icing calls and three broken sticks.
The Penguins had a couple early chances _ Bryan Rust shooting wide, Guentzel on the doorstep _ but it was the Predators who drew first blood.
After the Penguins yet again failed to break out of their zone cleanly, Calle Jarnkrok potted the rebound of a Craig Smith shift at 14:51 after Olli Maatta probably should have been called for holding Smith on that shift.
It didn't take long for the Penguins to tie, however.
Former Penguin James Neal threw an ill-advised pass into the neutral zone, and Brian Dumoulin sent a quick-up to Crosby. Crosby faked a shot than deked around Rinne to score on a backhander at 15:57, tying the game at 1.
It snapped a 12-game goal-less stretch for Crosby in the Stanley Cup final _ since Game 4 against the Red Wings in 2009 _ and it was Crosby's first-ever goal in a Stanley Cup final road contest.
