Nick Bonino scored all three goals for the Predators on home ice Tuesday night in a 3-0 shutout of the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
“Sometimes the puck sits there for you, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Bonino said. “The puck had some good bounces, hit me a couple of times, and just sat there. I was just trying to get there. I knew [Smith] and [Grimaldi] were cycling, they were winning all of their battles, and getting pucks to the net. I just tried to go to the net and find some rebounds.”
Pekka Rinne made 20 saves to get the shutout.
“If you look at [Blackhawks goaltender Robin Lehner], he was on fire,” Rinne said. “He was the only reason this game was reasonable for them. I haven’t been part of that kind of game I don’t think in my career. We played extremely well throughout the game, didn’t have any lapses. Just kept going and generating more and more, but for me personally, it was one of the easier shutouts.”
All three of Bonino’s goals came off low rebounds.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a game where a guy scores three goals the exact same way in a 3-0 game,” Rocco Grimaldi (three assists) said. “That was pretty crazy to watch. It was just a complete game by everybody. I mean, all four lines were rolling, [Rinne] was obviously perfect, and we just had a really good game. We had 80 or 90 shot attempts, potentially. I don’t know if it was 51 shots, 24 blocked, plus all of the missed nets. It was fun to play in and fun to watch.”
[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Predators highlights]
Lehner made 48 saves in the loss.
“[Lehner] was vocal, he had energy,” Jonathan Toews said. “He would come to the bench and he always had something positive to say, despite the fact that we were pretty much hanging him out to dry every single shift. He made some huge stops. It could’ve been a 10-0 game if it wasn’t for him.”
The Blackhawks dropped to 3-6-2.
“If you don’t do the right things consistently, you don’t get good results. Today was a crazy game, to be honest,” Lehner said. “Forget the shots, we had a lot of chances today. The one thing that I really like is my [defensemen] really worked with me today and we fought hard. They tried their best to help me out until the last second of the game, so that’s positive. I commend them for that.”
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