Goalie Juuse Saros passes Tomas Vokoun, moves to second on Nashville Predators' all-time wins list
Juuse Saros is neighbors with Pekka Rinne again.
Not literally, like the former locker neighbors were, but in the Nashville Predators' record books.
Saros earned his 162nd regular-season victory Thursday in Philadelphia against the Flyers, breaking a tie with Tomas Vokoun. Rinne is first with 369 wins.
Saros, a two-time All-Star, spent five seasons as Rinne's backup. He has led the NHL in games played and shots against the past two years.
Thursday's win was punctuated by two goals from Philip Tomasino and 30 saves from Saros.
Saros gave up a fluky goal 1:31 into the first period Thursday when the puck bounced off Alexandre Carrier's stick, off the Flyers' Morgan Frost's skate, over the back of the net, and off of Saros' back.
But Tomasino, Cole Smith and Gustav Nyquist backed him up with goals.
Saros struggled to start the season and was pulled from Tuesday's game but earned his 15th victory of the season Thursday, which is tied for second most in the NHL.
Saros took his slow start in stride, saying "(Expletive) it, let's just do what I can."
Saros holds the franchise record for saves in a game with 64.
He described his early season struggles thusly:
"Sometimes when you go into that struggling part you might overthink the expectations," he said last week. "Like you're thinking more about the result than the performance.
"A lot of different things going on."
Saros is 162-106-27 in 311 career games.
He was chosen in the fourth round (199th overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Goalie Juuse Saros now 2nd on Nashville Predators' all-time wins list
