It’s no easy feat repeating a national sports championship in two consecutive seasons. The Pittsburgh Penguins sustained a cold catfish slap of reality on Saturday, losing 5-1 on the road to the Nashville Predators in game 3 of the Stanley Cup series final. The Pens hold a 2-1 edge as the series resumes tonight in Nashville before returning for at least one game in Pittsburgh.

It’s no easy feat either putting a price tag on a professional sports dynasty — but for the Penguins, it would be a great problem to have.

Defending Stanley Cup champions, the Pens are looking not only for a second consecutive National Hockey League championship, but also their fifth title overall.

For Pittsburgh sports fans, it would complete the set — all three of the ’Burgh’s professional sports teams will have “one for the thumb” — a collection of five championship rings to their credit. The Pirates won their fifth World Series title in 1979; the Steelers’ fifth Superbowl win came in 2006 — they won their sixth in 2009.

Yes, championship hockey players get rings similar to those awarded for the Super Bowl and World Series. The NHL rings get less attention, being overshadowed by the coveted Stanley Cup.

But what’s a championship worth to a professional hockey organization? To be more specific, how do two or more consecutive championships — a dynasty — influence a team’s net worth and how does the value spill over into a host community like Cranberry Township and Butler County, home of the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the Penguins’ $70 million training facility completed in 2015?

There’s the intrinsic answer: Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle paid $107 million for the Penguins 18 years ago in 1999. Eleven years later, an analysis of pro hockey teams, completed in 2010 by Forbes magazine, calculated the team’s net worth had more than tripled to $325 million. It was the year construction was completed on the $321 million Consol Energy Center, now named the PPG Paints Arena.

A Forbes update in November 2016 ranked the Pens No. 11 at $570 million. This update followed the Pens’ championship season and the team’s first season in the new training complex in Cranberry.

But obviously there’s more than intrinsics and real estate involved. There’s more than dollar value, market sustainability and profit/loss ratios.

Then again, the hockey revolution going on in Cranberry is more than a display of regional pride, too. The UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex is testimony to the present and future of ice hockey.

There’s a well conceived the carefully executed plan to develop a franchise to its fullest potential, primarily by taking good care of its players. Maybe that’s because the Pens’ principal owner used to be one.

The partnership between the Penguins and UPMC demonstrates an integrity that reflects the important link between healthy athletes and peak performance.

It’s one of the primary reasons the Penguins are in the Stanley Cup final for a second straight year. And if they win it all again this year, all the better.

— TAH