As the old saying goes, all good things come to an end.

Before last night’s 4-3 shootout defeat at the hands of Vancouver Canucks, Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne had not lost a game since Jan. 5 – over a month ago. Since that decisive loss to Dallas, Rinne won all 11 of his starts and put the team on his back. In the process he set a franchise record for most consecutive wins as a goaltender.

In Rinne’s stellar 11-game win streak, he posted a goals-against average of 1.55, along with a save percentage of .951. He also allowed more than two goals just once. His great play seems to have placed his name in Vezina Trophy discussion once again, following an up and down first half.

Last night, Rinne dropped his third decision of the year against Vancouver. In each of the first two meetings (both in Vancouver), Rinne was pulled from his cage. He even ran the risk of being yanked again last night with the Preds facing a 3-1 deficit after 20 minutes. Rinne settled down, made 28 saves in the game and helped the Preds earn a point in the losing effort.

When asked what he does to settle down after a bad period, Rinne said, “I just trust myself and play with confidence. In the first period when you go down, you can’t feel sorry for yourself or anything like that. You just have to come back and do your job and try to help your team; I think that’s what we all did.”

Rinne’s win streak wasn’t going to last forever, but he’s obviously the backbone to the team’s success from here on out.

“You can’t say enough about the guy,” defenseman Kevin Klein said. “I’m give him all my praise because when we make a mistake, he’s there 99 percent of the time.”

***

The Morning After:
Yesterday’s results:
Canucks 4, Predators 3

Smashville 24/7 3 stars of the night:
1. Daniel Sedin, VAN (1 goal, 1 assist)
2. Byron Bitz, VAN (1 goal, 1 assist)
3. Shea Weber, NSH (1 assist)

Recaps around the blogosphere:

Play of the game:
http://nhl.cdn.neulion.net/u/videocenter/embed.swf