On a scrappy night at PPG Paints Arena, where the NHL's final two contenders combined for 11 power plays and more than 75 hits, the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins pulled away for a 4-1 win and a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

And it wasn't close.

That wasn't the case early on Wednesday, but by night's end, the Pens unloaded a trio of third-period goals, an embattled Pekka Rinne had been yanked from the Nashville Predators' net, and the surging Western Conference champs turned their attention to a much needed return home.

Pontus Aberg had the highlight-reel strike of the first period in Game 2, giving the Preds a 1-0 advantage 12:57 into the game on a patient and oh-so-smooth glide around Matt Murray.

But the first period was largely a penalty back-and-forth, with the teams combining for five power-play tries after just over 14 minutes of play, and the Penguins, despite frustration after noncalls on some early boarding and a Mattias Ekholm punch to the face of Jake Guentzel, taking advantage.

It was Guentzel -- who is quickly rising on the league's all-time leaderboard for rookie scorers in a postseason -- who got the best of Rinne after the last of those first-period extra-man advantages. Guentzel's goal knotted the contest at 1-1 with an extra-effort tap into the net.

And Pittsburgh -- despite six shot blocks from Nashville's blue line, a few impressive sliding saves from Rinne and a quiet opening for an under-attack Sidney Crosby -- still entered the first intermission with more pucks fired at Nashville's goal than from all of Game 1's 5-3 decision.

And that was without any penalty help from an officiating crew that overlooked a brief slew of P.K. Subban forearms to Crosby -- something the PPG Paints Arena crowd did not overlook. Crosby, of course, wasn't without his own antics, delivering a little bit of uncalled slashing earlier in the night, and Chris Kunitz was even rougher with a cross-check to Subban, but there was plenty of other after-the-whistle officiating -- or a lack thereof -- that had both sides on edge.

The chippy play, headlined by some reckless stick work from the Preds, continued deep into the second period on a Cody McLeod high-sticking that handed the Pens their fifth power play of the evening. But Rinne, as hesitant as he may have been on some of Pittsburgh's rare second-period shots, kept the defending champs from breaking the 1-1 tie into the third with more help from Nashville's active defensemen.

Murray, meanwhile, was the gem of Game 2 entering the final period, halting all but one of the Preds' 32 shots through 40 minutes. If not for the youngster's poise in the net, Nashville, even with all its bouts of undisciplined contact, would surely have translated more of its many face-off wins and scoring chances into, well, scores.

That's exactly what the Penguins did in the third, when Guentzel stayed hot with a go-ahead drive after setups from Bryan Rust and aggressive D-man Ron Hainsey just 10 seconds into the period, then watched as Scott Wilson, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist unleashed three consecutive goals in roughly as many minutes.

The latter was ultimately undone by an offside call, the same infraction that cost Nashville in Game 1, and Wilson's score was actually a deflection off the Preds' Vernon Fiddler.

But the rapid offensive outburst, a stark contrast to Pittsburgh's slow start that featured no shots from Crosby or Malkin, still pushed Rinne from the game and shifted momentum entirely in Steel City's favor. Another late power-play opportunity for the Predators, dished out after a tussle betwen Malkin and Subban, was hardly enough to pull Nashville back into contention, and it certainly did nothing to loosen the pressure on the Preds entering a suddenly must-win Game 3.

Trailing 2-0 in the series to a Pens team that has the edge in experience, discipline and offensive firepower, the Predators will need a whole lot more than Bridgestone Arena's energy to right themselves on Saturday.