PHILADELPHIA – The Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne made 28 saves in a thrilling 1-0 win over the Flyers Thursday night.
“Any time a goalie gets a shutout it’s a compliment to his teammates,” Rinne said. “I was able to see the puck for the most part, make the first save. Lot of time, guys were bailing me out. At the beginning of the game, they had a lot of good chances.”
Right Wing Wayne Simmonds (#17) of the Philadelphia Flyers checks Defenseman Alexei Emelin (#25) of the Nashville Predators
The natch was scoreless until Colton Sissons struck in the third period for Nashville.
“Amazing,” Sissons said of Rinne. “Simply amazing, that’s all I can say.”
Rinne has picked up where he started in the post season last campaign. He has yielded just four goals on 115 of his shots.
“I think after the first two, three games I think that was the ongoing main thing, the play as a team, make good decisions,” he said. “I think by no means are we a defensive team. We play a fast game and try to play up and down the ice. As a five-man unit, not get separated too much, things like that, that’s been our focus. Try to find that speed that we have. First few games, we weren’t able to generate that for some reason.”
The Flyers could not find enough space or distance from the Predators’ defense to find their rhythm; Philadelphia was scoreless in five power play opportunities.
“We did a lot of good things,” Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux said. “It was that kind of game. You kind of get frustrated because you’re doing all the good things, you’re playing the right way, you’re just not getting rewarded.”
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Flyers highlights]
Michal Neuvirth made 23 saves in the hard luck loss.
“We had good chances in the third period, two or three good chances before they scored their first goal. We had at least six or seven, maybe more, after it was a one-goal game. Made good plays in the third, had scoring chances from good areas. We just couldn’t execute to get one past [Predators goalie Pekka Rinne],” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said of the loss and his team’s efforts.
Defenseman Ivan Provorov (#9) and Center Valtteri Filppula (#51) of the Philadelphia Flyers , Left Wing Filip Forsberg (#9) and Defenseman Alexei Emelin (#25) of the Nashville Predators
Center Claude Giroux (#28) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Defenseman Alexei Emelin (#25) of the Nashville Predators pushing and shoving behind the net.
Center Claude Giroux (#28) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Defenseman Alexei Emelin (#25) of the Nashville Predators pushing and shoving behind the net.
Right Wing Wayne Simmonds (#17) of the Philadelphia Flyers in on Goalie Pekka Rinne (#35) of the Nashville Predators
Left Wing Cody McLeod (#55) of the Nashville Predators and Defenseman Robert Haag (#8) of the Philadelphia Flyers pushing and shoving as Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (#53) of the Philadelphia Flyers looks on.
Center Claude Giroux (#28) of the Philadelphia Flyers checks Defenseman Alexei Emelin (#25) of the Nashville Predators
Center Colton Sissons (#10) of the Nashville Predators and Goalie Michal Neuvirth (#30) of the Philadelphia Flyers
Goalie Pekka Rinne (#35) of the Nashville Predators
Goalie Michal Neuvirth (#30) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Defenseman Travis Sanheim (#6) along with Left Wing Cody McLeod (#55) of the Nashville Predators
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