Murray (26 saves), Penguins shut out Predators
PITTSBURGH -- Goaltender Matt Murray stopped 26 shots and Ryan Reaves scored his first goal with Pittsburgh as the Penguins shut out the Nashville Predators 4-0 Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Reaves, a rugged winger acquired from St. Louis in the offseason, also got in two fights.
Besides picking up its first win, Pittsburgh (1-1-1) bounced back from a 10-1 loss Thursday at Chicago and reasserted itself against Nashville in a rematch of the 2017 Stanley Cup final won by the Penguins in six games.
Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Olli Maatta also scored. Maatta added an assist, and Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust each had two assists.
Murray shut out the Predators in the final two games of the Cup final and has a goalless stretch of 206:28 against Nashville. It was his sixth career regular-season shutout.
Backup goalie Juuse Saros made 30 saves for Nashville (0-2). He started over Pekka Rinne, who is 0-6 with an .822 save percentage in his career in Pittsburgh and struggled against the Penguins in the final last spring.
The Penguins played the majority of the game with five defensemen after Ian Cole left at 14:50 of the first when he knelt to block a Roman Josi slap shot and took the puck in the face, bloodying him.
Malkin opened the scoring 1:06 into the first with a blistering one-timer from the top of the slot off of a pass from Phil Kessel.
It was Malkin's first goal, but he has at least one point in all three Pittsburgh games.
Murray stopped Nashville's Pontus Aberg point-blank after a turnover in the Pittsburgh end by defenseman Matt Hunwick. About a minute later, the Penguins took a 2-0 lead when Guentzel scored on a rebound after Saros stopped shots from in tight by Crosby and Rust.
Crosby also has a three-game point streak.
Reaves had his first fight in a Penguins uniform, against Austin Watson at 3:22 of the second, then got his first goal with Pittsburgh at 12:52 when he redirected a shot by Maatta for a 3-0 lead.
Maatta scored his second of the season from the top of the right circle off of a feed from Crosby 33 seconds into the third to make it 4-0.
Reaves got into another fight, with Cody McLeod, in a penalty-filled third.
NOTES: Nashville LW Kevin Fiala (upper-body injury) missed the game and is day-to-day. ... Penguins RW Patric Hornqvist (offseason hand surgery) skated with the team for the first time at the morning skate. He divulged that he had pins removed recently. ... Nashville C Nick Bonino received his Stanley Cup ring in the morning, and there was a video tribute to him during the first commercial break. He signed with the Predators as a free agent after winning the Cup with Pittsburgh. ... Nashville C Calle Jamkrok played in his 250th game.