On Monday night, Pekka Rinne made 21 saves in a 2-1 Nashville Predators win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“I felt that was probably one of the better defensive games all year,” Rinne said. “That’s a good hockey team. You could tell they played with confidence. They kept pushing in the third, but I think the only had like five shots or something like that.
“Guys did an extremely good job just staying with it. They have a lot of team speed, and their top couple lines there are pretty dangerous. I thought that we managed the game extremely well tonight.”
Kevin Fiala scored midway through the second period to give the Preds a 2-1 lead Rinne would protect the rest of the way.
Nashville improved to 19-8-1.
“Great win for us,” the Preds’ ROman Josi said. “I think, especially defensively, we played really well and [Rinne] was [Rinne] like always. But it’s a huge win.
“That’s a good team over there; they’re playing really well this year. So it was great for us to get a team win like that.”
Sam Reinhart had tied the game early in the middle frame.
Buffalo has now lost three straight after having their 10-game win streak snapped.
“They’re a very good team, obviously,” Sabres forward Patrik Berglund said. “But I think we played well today. I think we matched a lot of it; it’s just we’ve got to find ways to create more chances and obviously put the puck in the net.”
Ryan Ellis scored on the power play for Nashville in the first period.
“I haven’t been in that position much this year,” Ellis said. “It’s my favorite spot to be; hopefully I can get a couple more there. Overall, great puck movement by the guys coming in and a couple good heads-up plays. Shoot the puck, see what happens and it went in.”
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Predators highlights]
Carter Hutton made 23 saves in the loss.
“Maybe we got fancy a couple of times. But on the bench and all that, I think overall we stayed very positive. We stayed positive here in the locker room as well, so I think we’re doing a lot of good things right now. We’ve just got to keep going and take a look at the bad areas and move on,” Sabres’ Patrik Berglund said.
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