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The finest Finnish goaltending was on display tonight as Pekka Rinne and Miikka Kiprusoff dominated the contest between the Predators and Flames, which remained scoreless through regulation. Rene Bourque scored the game winner 2:10 into the extra session, ruining Rinne's 34-save effort in his return to the Nashville lineup. Kiprusoff had the same number en route to the shutout.
Follow after the jump for reaction, advanced stats, and the video highlights...
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- The injury to Ryan Suter is a huge concern if he has to miss much time. The Preds have another three games coming up through Sunday, so even a few days lost will have a large impact.
- Suter's loss was especially felt on the power play, which struggled often to set up possession. The Preds had 9:53 of total power play time, and went 0-for-5.
- Jerred Smithson did some surprisingly good work in the offensive end, drawing a penalty, almost scoring a goal, and generally using his boardwork to keep the play in the Calgary zone.
- As you can see in the table below, the Preds were pretty much outclassed across the board at even strength (outshot by Calgary 33-21 at evens). The line of Erat-Wilson-Dumont really took the brunt of it up front, which is what was feared with Colin moving back to center after starting this season on the wing.
- The good news, of course, is that the Preds pick up the loser point once again, so they've got 8 points for their 3-0-2 record. Coming up, they face a difficult 3-games-in-4-nights stretch starting Thursday vs. Pittsburgh, Saturday at Dallas, then Sunday at Tampa Bay.
- Cal O'Reilly and Jerred Smithson were both 73% on their faceoff wins, very impressive efforts. David Legwand went 3-for-10.
- You certainly couldn't pin this one on Pekka Rinne - he looked ready, willing & able to stop everything which came his way.
- I'm trying to find out why this game was blacked out locally, even for Center Ice subscribers. Typically, games not broadcast on Fox Sports TN are still available via the other team's feed on Center Ice.
As for your advanced stats...
| 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 |
| David Legwand | C | 15:08 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 17 | -5 |
| Joel Ward | R | 14:25 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 9 | 18 | -9 |
| Cal O'Reilly | C | 14:24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 9 | 17 | -8 |
| Jordin Tootoo | R | 14:08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 10 | 16 | -6 |
| Steve Sullivan | L | 13:27 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 8 | 16 | -8 |
| Patric Hornqvist | R | 13:15 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 9 | 14 | -5 |
| Sergei Kostitsyn | L | 11:02 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Jerred Smithson | R | 10:49 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 6 | 8 | -2 |
| Colin Wilson | C | 9:32 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 11 | -6 | 8 | 15 | -7 |
| Martin Erat | R | 9:12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 9 | 15 | -6 |
| Nick Spaling | C | 9:05 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 8 | 5 | +3 |
| J-P Dumont | R | 8:51 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 9 | 15 | -6 |
| Kevin Klein | D | 21:35 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 20 | -10 | 17 | 28 | -11 |
| Shane O'Brien | D | 21:33 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 15 | 21 | -6 |
| Shea Weber | D | 20:02 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 15 | 24 | -9 |
| Francis Bouillon | D | 19:53 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 17 | 24 | -7 |
| Cody Franson | D | 12:29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 12 | -8 | 6 | 18 | -12 |
| Ryan Suter | D | 1:16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
And now, your video highlights (might have to wait a bit post-game for the video to work):
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