Pittsburgh can end that drought by winning either Game 6 or Game 7 of this Stanley Cup Final.
___ 8:58 p.m. Big saves and a quick whistle that negated a goal has left the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators scoreless after two periods of a tense Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Final.
Nashville’s goal drought is now at 103 minutes and 23 seconds since Filip Forsberg scored into an open net in 4-1 win in Game 4.
Despite several chances and a fast-paced style, the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins have played the first scoreless first period of this year’s Stanley Cup Final.
The Penguins lead the series 3-2, and seeking to become the NHL’s first team to win consecutive Stanley Cup championships since Detroit won in 1997 and ’98.
Coming off a 6-0 loss in Game 5, the Predators haven’t scored in 63 minutes and 23 seconds since Filip Forsberg’s empty-netter in a 4-1 win in Game 4.
___ 7:06 p.m. Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis is playing and in the starting lineup for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Ellis played only 10:44 of Nashville’s 6-0 loss on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
Thousands of country music and hockey fans have packed into downtown Nashville as two of the city’s biggest events converged – the CMA Music Festival and the Stanley Cup Final.
___ 4 p.m. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are a win from becoming the NHL’s first team to win consecutive Stanley Cup titles in nearly two decades.

Will Canada End Its Stanley Cup Drought?
Well, It’s Not Impossible.
It’s been a cold, agonizing quarter-century for hockey fans in the Great White North.
So the more cracks Canadian teams can take at the Cup, the better their country’s odds of winning.
The playoffs aren’t totally a crapshoot, though — better teams still have a greater chance of winning.
(And yep, Edmonton wound up taking the prize.)
The late ’80s were a golden era for Canada’s Cup chances; Canadian teams haven’t combined for even half those odds in a single postseason since 2006.
This year, the five Canadian playoff squads’ probabilities add up to a mere 17 percent — only a little over half what we expected earlier when we naively assumed that every playoff team had an equal shot at Lord Stanley’s Mug.
According to SRS, the best Canadian team — Connor McDavid’s Oilers — ranks a distant sixth in the league, with a rating that translates to a mere 5 percent chance of winning the Cup.
But for now, Canadian hopes of ending the Stanley Cup drought are once again resting on a handful of decent-but-not-great clubs.