In Glendale Monday night, Mike Smith turned aside all 22 shots from the Colorado Avalanche in a 1-0 shutout.
Mike Smith made 22 saves in shutout of Avs – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“It’s something you don’t think about often but I’m not going to lie, [setting the record] was trickling into my brain later in the game so I’m glad I got it over with,” Smith said. “We carried the play for the second and third period but the way we maintained the lead says a lot about the growth of this team.”
Brendan Perlini was the game’s lone goal scorer.
“He keeps coming and he shoots the puck a ton,” Arizona head coach Dave Tippett said. “If you look at the last two goals he’s got, he’s beating goalies. He steps into that hard wrist shot and he’s a goal scorer. That’s what he does.”
For Smith, it was his 22nd shutout of his career.
“I grew up watching [Khabibulin] play quite a bit. But to get that many shutouts with one team is a pretty cool achievement,” Smith added. “I’ve played with a lot of special people during my time in Arizona that deserve a lot of credit and piece of this. You don’t get shutouts alone. Winning is most important and shutouts are the bonus, and they say more about how the team plays in front of you.”
Smith stopped nultiple breakaways in the middle and third periods.
“We’re just trying to pick corners and it gets away from us,” Avs Nathan MacKinnon said.
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Calvin Pickard took the tough loss on 34 saves.
“They have some good, young talent and some good speed,” Pickard said. “But it was right there for us and we had a good push at the end but their goalie made some good stops.”
The Avs are just 4-13-1 in their 18 games.
“I thought both goalies were good but we missed the net on too many of our good chances, especially in the first period,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “All of our best chances were missed on, and then as the game went on Smith was good in goal. [Pickard] was good for us, they got their one and that was it.”
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