Rinne Stops 32 in Win, becoming Fantasy Hockey Stud

Pekka Rinne stopped 32 of 33 Colorado shots in a 5-1 win on Thursday. Rinne has been outstanding of late with 95 saves in 100 shots over the last three games, all wins for the tall Finn. Rinne is now 16-11-4 with a 2.09 GAA and a .930 save percentage, making him a top-seven fantasy

Ilya Kovalchuk starting second half of season strong for Devils

In the first four games of the second half, Kovalchuk has five points (three goals, two assists). “Before that I got some chances but they just weren’t going in,” Kovalchuk said today. “I think overall we’ve played harder. My linemates are creating a little bit more room for me and I’ve gotten a lot of

Diminutive Shirokov dominates in Denver

He scored his first NHL goal with impressive dangle and the lucky touch of one Henrik Sedin. After missing on several second period chances, Shirokov turned to his captain and asked Henrik to grace his stick with his touch. On the next shift he scored. “I had a few chances, I could have scored on

Tale of Two Goalies, Pekka Rinne Wins

It was a tale of two goalies at Jobing.com Arena on Tuesday night. Both Ilya Bryzgalov and Pekka Rinne came in riding hot streaks, but only one showed up for Tuesday’s contest between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Nashville Predators. Now the Preds are not, by any means, an offensive team. They rank highly in

Sergei Shirokov built up confidence in the AHL

After a 41-point season in 56 games with CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008-09, Shirokov came to North America’s West Coast to chase his NHL dream. But in six scoreless games with Vancouver last season, he looked small, he was pushed around easily and it just didn’t look like he belonged at

Kovalchuk Scores, Congratulates Zharkov on First NHL Goal

lya Kovalchuk followed Zharkov with a power-play strike 57 seconds later as the Devils jumped ahead 2-0 in the opening 5:22. He blasted an Andy Greene feed past Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin for his team-leading 13th of the season. Kovalchuk has 351 career goals in his career, but knows the first one is special. “Hopefully,

Sergei Shirokov will get an offensive role with Canucks

“We see him as a skilled player, an offensive player, to fill in an offensive role,” assistant coach Newell Brown said. “We’ve heard he’s been playing real well. We’ve got good reports about him. He’s had a great attitude. He’s skating real well and producing.” Concerns about Shirokov’s fitness and his skating have been alleviated