In St Louis Friday night, the Nashville PRedators’ Pekka Rinne made 34 saves en route to a 2-0 win over the Blues.
Rinne set a record for Finnish goalies, his 34th career shutout, passing Miikka Kiprusoff.
“It’s a fun little thing,” Rinne said. “He’s a guy I always looked up to and I was really happy when I had a chance to play against one of my idols, so that’s pretty cool.”
The Preds are on a run having won their fourth straight and ninth in the last 10 games.
“I felt, as a team, we were super excited to play against the No. 1 team in the NHL. It was a battle, but I thought we played a very strong game defensively,” Rinne said. “So obviously that made my job easier. The few situations that were more difficult, I was able to make the save. I’ve been feeling good and feeling confident so that’s a good feeling to have.”
Ryan Johansen scored once and had two points in the win.
“He (Rinne) deserves a lot of credit, like most nights,” Johansen said. “He’s been stellar to start the year so far and you need good goaltending to win in this league, so he’s been the backbone and we need him to keep doing what he’s doing.”
Austin Watson sealed the game with an empty-netter late.
“Overall a pretty good game for us,” Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said. “We started well and finished well.”
St Louis dropped to 16-6-1 with the loss that snapped a three-game win streak.
“Execution was a problem all night. We had open guys, whether we didn’t see them or hit them, I think that that was evident. And it showed up not in just the passing, but I think you see there were some opportunities where we’re missing the net,” St Louis head coach Mike Yeo said.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Blues highlights]
Carter Hutton made 22 saves in the loss.
“I didn’t think we really got to the net tonight,” Hutton said. “There was a lot of perimeter stuff. [Rinne] is a pretty elite goalie and he kills a lot of plays with his stick and with his glove. He’s pretty good at puck control and we rim pucks and he gets pucks and they’re out of the zone.
“It just wasn’t that gritty, gritty effort we need against a team like that.”
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