Sidney Crosby is bringing the Stanley Cup back home to Pittsburgh for a second consecutive year. Patric Hornqvist scored with 1:35 left and Matt Murray made 27 saves for his second straight shutout as the Penguins became the NHL's first team in nearly two decades to repeat as champions following a 2-0 win over the Nashville Predators in Game 6 in Nashville on Sunday night. The Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and '98 were the last champions to defend their title, but the Penguins are the first to do it in the salary cap era, the AP reports. They will cap their 50th season with their names on the most famous silver cup in sports for the fifth time.
It is the third championship for Crosby and a handful of teammates from the 2009 title team, surpassing the two won by the Penguins teams led by current owner Mario Lemieux in the 1990s. "We knew it was going to be tough all year, but we just tried to keep with it," says Crosby, who won his second Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP. "We had a lot of injuries and things like that. We just kept finding ways. That was really what we did all season, all playoffs. It's great to be able to do it." Nashville lost for just the first time in regulation on home ice this postseason. The game coincided with the final night of the CMA Music Festival, bringing more than 100,000 to downtown Nashville. (More Stanley Cup stories.)
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