Preds Beat Blues in Goalie Battle
Game #51 St. Louis Blues at Nashville Predators
Jumping out of the second half gates, the St. Louis Blues traveled to face the Nashville Predators in latter half of back to back games. The goaltending of each team has been top notch and the match up between Jaroslav Halak against Pekka Rinne did not disappoint. With a total of 79 shots on goal and 76 saves, the goalies put on a show. Only one could come out on top and that was Rinne with his Predators by a score of 3-1.
Nashville’s power play is almost the exact opposite of St. Louis’. With the man advantage early in the first, it did not take long for the Predators to take the lead. Ryan Suter battled on the boards before chipping it down to Patric Hornqvist. The pass to the point from the Nashville forward found an open Martin Erat who fired a rocket which tipped off Halak’s glove and into the net for the first goal of the game.
A few minutes later, the Predators took a two goal lead. Weak defensive play from TJ Oshie allowed Sergei Kostitsyn to power toward the net and center a pass to Mike Fisher. Losing the puck at his feet, Alex Pietrangelo did not find it again until Fisher had wrapped it around Halak’s out stretched leg.
The Blues only goal of the game came from a great individual effort from Chris Porter in the third. The strong forecheck of Porter forced Roman Josi to turn over the puck in front of Rinne who was not expecting the quick and dangerous shot of Porter. Catching Rinne off guard was about the only way to get one by him and the unassisted goal by Porter did just that.
Back to within one goal the Blues could not solve Rinne again. Pulling their goalie amounted to a few more opportunities before Kostitsyn buried the empty net goal to finish the game.
Halak may have given up two goals, but it was one of his best games keeping the Blues in it when they should have been blown out of the water. At the other end, Rinne performed like the seven million dollar goalie that he is. The game could easily been 6-5 if it were not for the outstanding leather work by the net minders.
Up Next: The road trip continues Tuesday against Ottawa.
