NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When an NHL goalie is named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, the award given to the best netminder in the league, fans expect his best effort every night. If he happens to let down his team with a bad performance, you can almost guarantee a bounce-back game the next time out.
Coming off of one of his worst games of the season, Pekka Rinne rebounded with a brilliant 32-save performance to help his Nashville Predators to a 2-0 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in game three of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. The victory brought the Predators, who had hit more than a few sour notes in two losses in Arizona, back into the series and sent their home crowd at the Bridgestone Arena home singing a much happier tune.
“We stepped up and played Predator hockey – finally – in this series,” Nashville head coach Barry Trotz said. “I feel a lot better after tonight’s game with a win (and the series) being 2-1. It wouldn’t feel very good if it was 3-0. We’ve got the momentum until midnight tonight and then it starts all over again.”
Rinne was at his best in the closing minutes of the third period when the Coyotes had 41 seconds of time with a two-man advantage. Phoenix worked the puck around, finally getting room for forward Shane Doan to blast a shot from the top of the near circle that Rinne fended off. Seconds later, a loose puck ended up on the stick of Radim Vrbata who fired but was denied by Rinne who from his stomach got his right leg pad over to cover the near side post.
Nashville dearly needed some home cooking after a lost weekend in the desert. Two demoralizing losses and controversy followed Trotz and his troops back to western Tennessee, threatening to engulf the Predators if they failed to win game three. Trotz suspended star forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn for the contest because they violated team rules prior to Sunday’s 5-3 loss, putting even more pressure on the rest of the team.
The Coyotes were a confident bunch, having been able to force Nashville into numerous turnovers and sloppy play in the first two games. Game three was a different story for Phoenix as from the outset the visitors looked like the ones with the weight of the world on them. The Predators came out hard, getting the Coyotes to play tentatively with the puck.
The key span of the game came before the game was ten minutes old. Just past the eight minute mark, Nashville dumped the puck into the Phoenix end. Goalie Mike Smith came out to play the puck but when he did, his pass went around the boards behind the net where Predators forward Gabriel Bourque was the only player to be found. Bourque looked out front and slipped a pass to David Legwand who put the puck past the diving Smith.
66 seconds later, Martin Erat forced another turnover in the Coyotes end near the blue line. Erat put the puck on the stick of Sergei Kostitsyn who passed up a shot by passing immediately to Mike Fisher off to Smith’s left. Fisher’s return pass to Kostitsyn through the crease hit Smith’s stick and bounded into the net, giving the Predators a two-goal lead.
The margin nearly became three when Legwand had a shot deflected past Smith and off the post. In the ensuing scramble, Smith appeared to corral the puck but Legwand crashed in and forced the puck across the line. Referee Stephen Walkom immediately waived off the goal, ruling that Legwand had used his stick to shove Smith and the puck into the net.
As it turned out, that negated score wasn’t needed because Rinne and the Predators’ defense had things well under control. Nashville’s defenders blocked 15 shots in the contest. When they weren’t laying out to knock down drives, the d-men were limiting the Coyotes to single shots – many from the outside – with few rebounds. The shots that did get through were handled by Rinne, who responded after allowing nine goals in two games to post his first career playoff shutout.
Game Notes: Final shots for the game favored Phoenix 32-26…After the game, Trotz reiterated his stand that suspending Radulov and Kostitsyn was “the right thing to do” and said that the way the team responded would make it hard for him to alter the roster for game four…With daytime temperatures in the 90’s on Wednesday, the NHL and the Predators brought in a temporary dehumidifying system to try to keep the ice from turning to slush…Both team’s power plays were blanked as Phoenix went 0-for-4 while Nashville was 0-for-5…Kevin Klein led the Predators defense with four blocked shots…The Phoenix Business Journal reported Wednesday night that a deal to sell the Coyotes to a group headed by former San Jose C.E.O. Greg Jamison is close to being finalized and could be voted on by the Glendale City Council as early as May 8th. The report, written by Mike Sunnucks, stated that Jamison may be looking for a 10-year lease at the Jobbing.com Arena. He also reported that the city of Glendale could pay Jamison’s group as much as $17 million a year to manage the arena…Game four is scheduled for Friday in Nashville with a now necessary game five set for Monday back in Glendale.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.