The ink had scarcely dried on Pekka Rinne’s 7-year contract extension, one that had the hockey pundits in a tizzy, when he played spectacularly Thursday to shut out the Phoenix Coyotes.
1
Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators – Rinne had 49 million reasons to celebrate Thursday. He did so by stopping all 35 shots he faced, including 13 in the second period and 14 in the third, stoning the Phoenix Coyotes at every turn in a 3-0 win. Jonathan Blum and Matt Halischuk each scored in the second period for Nashville and Patric Hornqvist added an empty netter to seal the deal.
2
Matt Cullen, Minnesota Wild – Cullen helped the Wild to their third straight win, tallying two goals and an assist, along with a game-high nine shots in a 5-1 win over Vancouver. Also scoring for the Wild were Marco Scandella, Guillaume Latendresse and Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Josh Harding stopped 24 of 25 shots in the cage for the win.
3
Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames – Iginla scored twice and added an assist on Olli Jokinen’s empty-net goal as the Flames downed the Red Wings by a score of 4-1. Lee Stempniak had the other goal for the Flames and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 28 of 29 shots in victory.
Play of the Night
Guillaume Latendresse makes the Vancouver defenseman look absolutely silly with his stickhandling before banking this shot into the net off of the side of Cory Schneider’s head:
Save of the Night
Jonas Hiller makes this gorgeous glove save on Ryan Callahan to keep the Ducks-Rangers game tied at zero in the first period:
Awesomeness of the Night
Two words for you. Goalie. Shootout:
And I’ll leave you with this thought. How awesome would it be to see a coach in the NHL give a goalie the nod in the shootout in a game that didn’t matter? You know, like a preseason game or a game against the Blue Jackets.
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