the power play with 8:53 left in the second, poking in a rebound that fell behind Berube after Eichel’s shot hit the goalie’s shoulder and went high into the air.Chicago evened the score again with 5:45 left in the second when a rebound from Toews’ shot hit Ristolainen and went into the net. Jurco was

NASHVILLE Montreal Canadiens Hats Authentic , Tenn. (AP) Goaltender Pekka Rinne wound up in a most unfamiliar spot in two of the most important games of his life.On the bench having been chased not once, but twice.In the Stanley Cup Final.Now Rinne is back in the postseason once again, and the 6-foot-5 Finn is a big reason why the Nashville Predators won the Presidents’ Trophy with the most points during the regular season. As Rinne prepares for Game 1 on Thursday night against Colorado, he insists last year’s Final provides not so much motivation as experience to use to his advantage along with so many good memories from that thrilling playoff run.”It’s a different year, obviously different situation, little bit of a different team,” Rinne said. ”But I’m sure you’ll look back at last year’s run, I think there’s a lot of things we can take, a lot of positives all the way through the finals and even after the finals. I think it was an unbelievable experience. I think you try to use that to your advantage.”Rinne carried last-seeded Nashville all the way to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final by going 12-4 with a .945 save percentage, ranking among the best postseasons by a goalie.Then came the Final.In Game 2 against Pittsburgh , Rinne was pulled by coach Peter Laviolette after Nashville gave up three goals in the first 3:18 of the third period of a 4-1 loss. Game 4 was even worse as Rinne gave up three goals on nine shots , lasting only the first period before being replaced by Juuse Saros again. The Predators lost in six games.Laviolette believes Rinne took the bulk of the blame for those losses when the Predators could have played better in front of their goalie. He also noticed what Rinne did to improve himself.”Let’s be honest,” Laviolette said. ”He’s been the backbone of this franchise. He was really good down the stretch in order to get us in the playoffs last year, and when the playoffs came, he was on point. And that was a big part of it. It was more for me just a continuation. I think there’s always changes. I think Pekka does a terrific job of trying to watch, trying to learn Custom Montreal Canadiens Jerseys , trying to understand the game better, trying to work at his craft.”Washington coach Barry Trotz has seen how driven Rinne is. He wants to stop every puck – even in practice.”He’s extremely competitive and extremely proud, that he plays hard on every puck,” Trotz said of his former goalie. ”It doesn’t matter how tired he is. … He plays every puck to exhaustion. And to me that’s allowed him to stay sharp mentally, and I think it’s allowed him to stay sharp physically because he’s 35 and he still is as quick and explosive as he’s ever been.”Rinne started working early to prepare for this season. He has worked on his stance in and around the net with Predators goaltender coach Ben Vanderklok to tighten his stance. Planting his skates inside the post rather than outside allows Rinne to be faster tracking a puck, able to push off a post to slide quickly to the other post.Not a big change for a goalie who turned 35 last November.”It’s hard to do any drastic changes at this point of your career,” Rinne said.Rinne has rebounded from losing the Final with a season that finally might win him the Vezina Trophy he missed three other times.The goalie, who won his 300th career game during the season, posted a career-high eight shutouts with the second-best save percentage of his career at .927. He finished third in the NHL with 42 wins and fifth in goals-against average (2.31). Down the stretch, Rinne was at his best going 23-5-1 with five of those shutouts.”He was the best goalie of the year,” Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen said.Rinne also should be rested for the postseason having played only 59 games, two fewer than last season and his fewest in an injury-free season since 2009-10 when playing 58 games. Laviolette stuck to a plan trying to ensure Rinne would be as fresh as possible for the playoffs while developing Saros.As winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, the Predators will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Smashville is where Rinne went 25-6-2 this season and an impressive 9-2 last postseason, which provides a certain sense of comfort.”When you think about it, if you take care of all the home games, you win the Stanley Cup so I mean that’s huge www.officialpredators.com ,” Rinne said.—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno and AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed to this report.— BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) For the first time in nearly a decade, the Buffalo Sabres had the bounces to go their way against the Chicago Blackhawks.Nicholas Baptiste scored two goals in the third period to lead the Sabres to a 5-3 win over the Blackhawks on Saturday. It was Buffalo’s first win over the Blackhawks since December 2009, snapping a 12-game losing streak against Chicago.The game featured deflections and redirections for both teams, with three of Buffalo’s five goals a result of fortuitous bounces.”Definitely some lucky bounces, that’s for sure,” said Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly, who had a goal and an assist. ”A little luck of the Irish tonight.”Benoit Pouliot and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Sabres – who wore green St. Patrick’s Day jerseys during warmups – and Chad Johnson made 34 saves.Baptiste was an unlikely star, picking up the sixth and seventh goals of his career.The 22-year-old tied the game at 3-3 early in the third on a long shot through traffic. With 1:56 remaining, he picked up the game-winner on a deflection. Following a faceoff win in the Chicago end, Marco Scandella’s shot from the point was deflected by Baptiste in the slot to put the Sabres on top for good.”That’s been the focus of our team for the last little while – getting shots to the net and getting bodies to the net and scoring some ugly ones and we got a couple tonight,” Baptiste said. ”That’s what it takes to score goals in this league and to win in this league.”The Sabres got a significant lift from the returning Jack Eichel, who was back in the lineup after missing 15 games because of an ankle injury. Eichel had one assist and five shots in 18:14.”It’s so nice to have him back,” O’Reilly said. ”The little things he does when he gets the puck, you feel like the whole building is like, `OK Nashville Predators T-Shirts Authentic , what’s he going to do?’ The other team has to be so sharp when he’s out there and it makes us a more dangerous team.”Eichel briefly tweaked his ankle early in the third period, but said he was fine after the game.Jonathan Toews, Jordan Oesterle and Tomas Jurco scored for the Blackhawks, and Jean-Francois Berube made 27 saves.”A couple tips and just didn’t get the job done,” Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane said. ”It’s been a common theme here for a while. A lot of the games, it even seems we’re scoring the first goal and we can’t come up with anything. It’s kind of been that way all year.”Pouliot opened the scoring with 1:50 remaining in the first period. After Rasmus Ristolainen’s pass was deflected into the crease, Pouliot had an easy tap-in for his 13th goal of the season.Oesterle evened the score 8:15 into the second following a pretty passing sequence in the Sabres zone. After Toews led Patrick Kane with a drop pass, Kane swung to his right before firing a pass to a wide-open Oesterle in front of the Buffalo net. Oesterle had an easy finish for his fifth goal of the season.O’Reilly made it 2-1 on the power play with 8:53 left in the second, poking in a rebound that fell behind Berube after Eichel’s shot hit the goalie’s shoulder and went high into the air.Chicago evened the score again with 5:45 left in the second when a rebound from Toews’ shot hit Ristolainen and went into the net. Jurco was given credit for the goal.Toews made it 3-2 on a terrific one-man effort 20 seconds into the third period. After his initial shot on a 2-on-1 was stopped, the Blackhawks captain sped to the crease and stole the rebound off Johnson’s stick. The puck flipped into the air, and Toews batted it in for his 20th goal of the season.Reinhart added an empty-net goal with 38.4 seconds left.NOTES: Buffalo native Emily Pfalzer was honored in a ceremonial opening faceoff before the game. Pfalzer was a member of the United States women’s hockey team at the 2018 Olympics, winning the gold medal in a shootout victory against Canada. Pfalzer was also captain of the Buffalo Beauts in the National Women’s Hockey League in 2015-16 and 2016-17. … Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons was injured midway through the first period and did not return. … Sabres starting goalie Robin Lehner was a healthy scratch.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Home against St. Louis on Sunday.Sabres: Host the Nashville Predators on Monday.—