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Pekka Rinne earns a shutout, but not a win as Nashville loses in 10-round shootout to Phoenix

This was about as wide-open as anybody got tonight as the Coyotes and Predators skated to a scoreless tie through 65 minutes.

More photos » Frederick Breedon - AP

This was about as wide-open as anybody got tonight as the Coyotes and Predators skated to a scoreless tie through 65 minutes.

The highlights were few and far between tonight between the Phoenix Coyotes and Nashville Predators as they went scoreless through regulation and overtime, before Phoenix prevailed in a 10-round shootout. Both goalies (Pekka Rinne for Nashville, Ilya Bryzgalov for Phoenix) were dominating in this one, especially during the shootout in which only 3 of 20 shooters scored (15%, as opposed to a typical 33% scoring rate).

Follow after the jump for reaction and the advanced even-strength stats. Remember, thanks to the spiffy new NHL widget you can find down there in the right sidebar, video highlights are available for this game as soon as they're posted by the league.

Star-divide

This is the 4th NHL game this season that went through 65 minutes of scoreless play before heading to a shootout, and credit has to go to both teams for sticking to sound defensive hockey. There were bodies clogging the shooting lanes all night, and as mentioned before, both goalies were outstanding.

And yes, despite the eventual loss, Pekka Rinne gets credit for a shutout.

Nashville's top 5 defensemen had to step up tonight and all play more than 20 minutes, as Cody Franson was injured on his first shift and did not return. Tom Callahan indicated that it was an upper-body injury that will be re-evaluated tomorrow. With John Glennon's news that Alexander Sulzer is already in Nashville to see doctors about an injury himself (which is not deemed serious), perhaps he could be called up for Thursday's game against Colorado if needed.

The regulation part of the contest moved very quickly, with few stoppages of play and just one power play for each side. The overtime, however, was more free-flowing (as you'd expect with 4-on-4 hockey), and each team threatened on a couple occasions to end the game.

The goalies, however, were in command here, as they were in the shootout as well. 7 of the 10 rounds went without a score, and Nashville needed a score from David Legwand in Round 3 to just keep it going. The next 12 shooters were all stopped before Adrian Aucoin beat Rinne glove-side, and Shea Weber missed the net in Round 10 to give Phoenix the win.

For discounted tickets to any Nashville Predators home game, you can follow this link and use the special offer code "PREDS". Remember that the two remaining home games this week (Thursday vs. Colorado, and Saturday vs. San Jose) will not be on local TV.

Let's give it up for Jordin Tootoo! He celebrated his 27th birthday by firing 4 shots on net in just under 12 minutes of ice time (although I was worried that he was going to take a Slashing penalty on Shane Doan in the waning minutes of the 3rd period).

 Even Strength Individual Totals Team Totals While Player Is On Ice
 Player Pos EV TOI Shots Shts Blkd Missed Shts Blocks SOG For SOG Ag SOG +/- Tot SF Tot SA Corsi
 Jason Arnott C 18:51 2 1 2 1 6 6 0 15 16 -1
 Martin Erat R 18:03 1 0 1 0 7 8 -1 17 16 1
 Steve Sullivan L 17:34 1 0 1 0 8 6 2 19 13 6
 David Legwand C 17:24 1 0 2 0 7 4 3 10 10 0
 Jerred Smithson R 14:57 1 0 0 2 5 4 1 7 12 -5
 Joel Ward R 14:31 1 0 1 1 6 3 3 9 9 0
 Patric Hornqvist R 14:09 1 0 3 0 3 7 -4 10 13 -3
 Marcel Goc C 14:01 0 0 1 1 4 5 -1 10 11 -1
 J P Dumont R 13:23 0 0 1 1 3 8 -5 8 12 -4
 Ryan Jones L 12:10 2 3 0 0 6 5 1 12 9 3
 Jordin Tootoo R 11:54 4 0 1 0 7 5 2 11 10 1
 Cal O'Reilly C 11:03 0 0 0 0 4 7 -3 9 10 -1
 Shea Weber D 26:06 3 2 0 0 15 14 1 28 18 10
 Kevin Klein D 25:06 2 1 0 3 8 3 5 15 15 0
 Ryan Suter D 24:17 2 2 0 1 12 13 -1 23 19 4
 Dan Hamhuis D 23:15 3 1 2 2 5 7 -2 15 21 -6
 Francis Bouillon D 22:40 0 0 0 2 8 11 -3 17 24 -7
 Cody Franson D 0:36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -1
Poll
Who is your Predator of the Game?
Pekka Rinne, 26 saves, shutout
57 votes
Jordin Tootoo, 4 shots, 27th birthday
5 votes

62 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  Comment 4 comments |

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Ice issues!

So Aucoin said tonight’s ice was the worst he has ever skated on in the NHL. Saturday night Arnott said it was terrible. Saturday was one of the coldest days of the year too. I wonder what’s going on there. Any ideas?

by 29thWard on Feb 3, 2010 12:24 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, our ice always sucks...

At the start of the season and after the circus comes through town. The ice had to be taken up for the circus to have anchor points on the floor. The ice that’s there now is full of air bubbles and needs to settle, leading to the horrid ice quality…

Predators Hockey: Live it, Love it...

by SLake on Feb 3, 2010 12:45 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Sulzer was scheduled to be in Nashville on Thursday...

But…he played tonight in Milwaukee’s 5-1 win over Texas scoring the game’s opening goal on a nice series of passes from Blum and Wilson and added an assist on the Ads’ second goal of the night too. Both were power-play tallies…

Wilson named games first star with a goal and two assists on the power-play, Pickard named second star after making 27 saves for the victory, and Spaling named third star with a goal and an assist also both on the man advantage.

Hopefully Wilson joins Sulzer on the flight to Nashville in the morning. I’d just rather bring him up now to get his feet wet before the break, send him back during the break to work on whatever is necessary, then recall him for the rest of the season after the break. I just don’t see how adding a power forward that knows how to put the puck in the net is going to hurt at this point…

Predators Hockey: Live it, Love it...

by SLake on Feb 3, 2010 12:50 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

I agree.

Wilson is on a tear. Maybe he can be an asset on one of these lines that loves to pass, but hates to shoot.

by 29thWard on Feb 3, 2010 12:58 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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