Pekka Rinne Awarded NHL Third Star of the Week

The NHL announced that Nashville Predator netminder, Pekka Rinne was named the NHL third star of the week for March 8-14.

From NHL.com...

Samuelsson, Stempniak and Rinne named '3 Stars'

Mikael Samuelsson was disappointed at not being named to Sweden's Olympic team. He's taking out his frustration on the Vancouver Canucks' opponents.

At age 33, Samuelsson is having a career season, including a week that saw him get his first NHL hat trick and finish with 6 goals and 10 points in four games to help the Canucks go 3-0-1 while completing the longest road trip in NHL history and returning home with a pair of victories. That effort earned him NHL First Star of the Week honors.

Samuelsson is a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career, but he's gotten a boost in the last week or so by being switched onto a line with the Sedin twins. His six-game goal-scoring streak ended Sunday, but he extended his points streak to seven games, during which he has 9 goals and 13 points.

Second Star: Lee Stempniak -- Kudos to Phoenix GM Don Maloney for landing Stempniak from Toronto at the trade deadline. Stempniak has fit right in with the Coyotes, scoring 5 goals in three games to help the Coyotes to a perfect 3-0-0 week.

Third Star: Pekka Rinne -- Rinne is earning the lion's share of the goaltending time in Nashville and has the Predators on the way to the playoffs. He beat both Southern California teams on the road last week, shutting out Anaheim, 1-0, and edging Los Angeles, 3-2.

Pekka won games over Anaheim on Friday and the L. A. Kings yesterday, stopping 49 of 51 shots. He also played 4:35 in a mop up roll on Thursday in San Jose stopping one of two. For the week he was 2-0 with a shutout and had a .943 save percentage.

Congrats to Pekka and his agent Jay Grossman, who also represents Samuelsson.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass