PITTSBURGH — The fresh-faced, 22-year-old rookie who leads the NHL in playoff goals — a hot streak that has him in the middle of the Conn Smythe Trophy conversation given to the postseason MVP — was once too embarrassed to shoot the puck.

So Jake Guentzel didn’t. Not in any sort of great quantity. Better to use his uncanny vision to set up teammates than be greedy. It’s a mindset that helped the budding Pittsburgh Penguins star set a school record for assists during his freshman year at Nebraska-Omaha three years ago, a selflessness coach Dean Blais tried to change, with mixed results.

“You want to be unselfish,” Blais said told Guentzel over and over during Guentzel’s three years with the Mavericks. “But when you’ve got the opportunity to bury it, you bury it.”

Consider the message finally received.

Guentzel beat Nashville’s Pekka Rinne twice in Pittsburgh’s 4-1 win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday as the Penguins took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Nebraska-born, Minnesota-raised son of a coach who spent most of his childhood trying to keep up with older brothers Ryan and Gabe now has a dozen goals during the postseason. That’s the most ever by an American-born rookie and within two of Dino Ciccarelli’s NHL rookie record set while playing for the Minnesota North Stars in 1981. Oh, and his five game-winning goals so far are tops among first-year players in a league that dates back a century.

“Someone that would have dreamed this is lying,” Blais said with a laugh.

Maybe, but this is hardly a fluke. Painting the beginning of Guentzel’s NHL career as charmed — he did happen to score on his first two shots in his NHL debut in a loss against the New York Rangers in November — doesn’t do justice to his talent and work ethic.

Sure, there’s a little puck luck involved, but not much. You don’t pour in 28 goals and 24 assists in 61 games thanks to a bounce or two.

“He’s been given a lot of responsibility and he’s done a great job of just continuing to improve and compete,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said.

It’s not a coincidence Pittsburgh’s equipment manager Dana Heinze put Guentzel in a stall adjacent to Crosby’s when the rookie was called up for good in January.

It’s a practice the team uses to give young players a chance to get acclimated to life in the NHL while sitting next to the face of the game. Putting a newbie next to Crosby also creates minimal distraction for the rest of the room during the daily media crush around the two-time Hart Trophy winner.

Eventually, however, the crowd breaks up. It’s in those quiet moments that Crosby becomes mentor and teammate.

“I think Sid has a really nice way of making those guys feel comfortable when they come into our dressing room,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “The influence he has on these kids goes a long way to giving these kids the confidence that they need.”

Not that Guentzel has ever lacked confidence (his Twitter handle is the playful jakenbake20 ), even if he doesn’t exactly fit the physical profile of an elite goal scorer at 5-feet-11 and 180 pounds.