CHICAGO -- Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne insisted that his second consecutive shutout had more to do with the way his teammates played defense in front of him than the way he stopped pucks.

Rinne's coach smiled when he heard about the comment.

"He's lying, first of all," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "There were some unbelievable saves that he made, especially in the third period. (He) adds an extra dimension."

The 34-year-old netminder stopped all 30 shots he faced, and the Predators pulled away for a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

Rinne has made 59 saves without allowing a goal in the past two games to help Nashville grab a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal.

The series will shift to Nashville for Games 3 and 4.

"Pekks is elite," said defenseman Ryan Ellis, who was one of five Predators to score in the rout. "He's top tier. I'm a huge fan of Pekks. I'm a believer in his abilities, and he's been unbelievable since I've been here. He's been the difference-maker, and the last two games have been great."

Rinne even picked up two secondary assists in the blowout win.

"That was lucky," Rinne said with a grin.

Nobody was smiling in Chicago's dressing room after the loss. The Blackhawks were outshot 30-29, outhit 48-31 and lost the majority of their faceoffs.

Frustrations boiled over for the Blackhawks, who led the Western Conference with 109 points in the regular season. Patrick Kane received a two-minute penalty for crosschecking Harry Zolnierczyk in the face late in the second period, and Ryan Hartman was tagged with a 10-minute misconduct in the final two minutes.

"That wasn't fun to watch," said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, who lumped the blame on every coach and player on the team. "Not too many positives came out of tonight's game."

Nashville scored once in the first period, twice in the second period and twice in the third period. Center Ryan Johansen finished with a goal and two assists to lead the team.

Zolnierczyk, Colton Sissons and Kevin Fiala scored along with Ellis and Johansen.

Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford allowed five goals on 29 shots.

"It's obviously not good enough," Crawford said. "They're coached pretty well. They are playing their game to a T. That's why they're up 2-0 right now."

"I haven't been able to give our team big saves in the first two games when we've needed it."

The Predators' scoring outburst stunned Blackhawks fans, who rained boos after Johansen made it 4-0 with 6:09 to go in the third period. Predators left winger Filip Forsberg beat Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell in a race to the puck and set up Johansen for a forehand shot in front of the crease.

Fiala increased the lead to 5-0 with a wrist shot from the left circle with 1:47 to play.

"We wanted to be more attacking," Ellis said. "I thought we played solid defense last game (in a 1-0 win), but it's not fun playing defense for the whole game. Tonight, I think it was a little bit more back and forth."

Nashville opened the scoring on a slap shot by Ellis less than four minutes after the opening faceoff. Blackhawks forward Richard Panik blocked Ellis' first attempt from the high slot, but the puck ricocheted back to Ellis. He capitalized with another shot that zipped through traffic and past Crawford's glove.

The Predators increased their lead to 2-0 on a partial breakaway by Zolnierczyk with 17:09 remaining in the second period. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm set up the goal with a terrific stretch pass from behind center ice. Zolnierczyk unleashed a wrist shot that deflected over Crawford's left shoulder and into the net.

Chicago's poor start continued when Sissons punched in a loose puck in front of the net to put Nashville on top 3-0 with seven minutes to go in the second period.

"We can play much better than that in all areas and all aspects," Quenneville said. "I think we're a better hockey team than we showed tonight."

NOTES: Blackhawks C Dennis Rasmussen and C Vinnie Hinostroza both made their career postseason debuts after sitting out Game 1 as healthy scratches. Neither player registered a point. ... Predators C Colin Wilson missed his second game of the series because of a lower-body injury. Wilson had 35 points (12 goals, 23 assists) in 70 games in the regular season. ... Blackhawks C John Hayden and RW Jordin Tootoo were healthy scratches. ... Nashville has scored first in each of the first two games in the series. The Predators scored first only 37 times in 82 games during the regular season. ... C Jonathan Toews led the Blackhawks with five shots on goal.