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Rinne, Predators shut out reeling Maple Leafs

Jan 14, 2009 - 4:39 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Pekka Rinne is the latest goaltender to reap the benefits of facing the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs.

Rinne made 17 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season and lead the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 triumph over the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

After the first two scoreless periods, David Legwand and Radek Bonk scored goals in the final session to snap Nashville's six-game road losing streak. Martin Erat recorded a pair of assists.

"It was good to get a road win," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "It's been awhile for us. It was looking like it was going to be a 0-0 type of game, sometimes you have to do that on the road."

Rinne was only forced to make four saves in the final period after turning aside six shots in the first and seven in the second.

"They had a couple of big chances that we were able to stop, that's about it," Rinne said. "They didn't have too much."

Toronto, which was shut out for the second time this season, has now lost four straight games and has managed only five goals during that span.

"Losing is not fun, but we've been playing hard the past few games," Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala said. "We've been having a hard time putting the puck in the net."

The Predators had not won a road game since a 2-0 victory in Buffalo on December 1, but waited until the final period to break a scoreless tie in this one.

In his second game since returning from back problems that kept him out of action since February 22, 2007, Steve Sullivan skated in from the blue line while on the power play and fired a wrist shot from inside the left faceoff circle. Bonk, who was stationed in front of Toskala, tipped in the shot at 5:33 of the period to put Nashville ahead.

"I saw it go off him, so I knew it wasn't my goal," Sullivan said. "But that didn't really matter. It was a 1-0 lead (in the) third period."

The Predators doubled the advantage when Legwand and Sullivan skated in on a 2-on-1 break, with Legwand snapping a shot inside the far post for a 2-0 lead with 6:57 left.

Toskala made 21 saves for Toronto, which failed on all five of its attempts with the man-advantage. The Maple Leafs are 4-for-39 on the power play in their last 10 games, going 2-8-0 in that span.

"Every team goes through stretches like that where they can't score - and that's what we're going through right now," Toronto defenseman Pavel Kubina said. "The last five, 10 games we struggled with that."