Sports

Wild's Dubnyk named one of three Vezina Trophy finalists

The Wild's season-saving goalie joins Montreal's Price, Nashville's Rinne.

By Michael Russo

April 25, 2015 at 4:23AM

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk kept his eyes on the puck along with Jonas Brodin and the Blues’ Paul Stastny in the first period Friday. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

ST. LOUIS – Devan Dubnyk's tremendous second-half run with the Wild has earned him a Vezina Trophy nomination.

Along with Montreal's Carey Price and Nashville's Pekka Rinne, the Wild goaltender is a finalist for the award given to the goaltender adjudged as the best at his position. The 30 NHL general managers vote for the award, and the winner will be announced June 24 during the 2015 NHL awards show in Las Vegas.

"I think he should be a Hart Trophy candidate, too, for what he's done for our group," coach Mike Yeo said. "It's very deserving, what he's done for us and the attitude that he's had. It's great that he's had personal success, but he really wants to bring team success to our group, too.

"But I also think it's a real compliment to the rest of the team. This is a team game. You don't have success individually unless the rest of the group is doing their job."

Dubnyk, 28, also the Wild's nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, tied for sixth in the NHL with 36 wins and ranked second with a 2.07 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. Acquired from Arizona on Jan. 14 with the Wild eight points outside of a playoff spot, Dubnyk started a franchise-record 38 consecutive games and went 27-9-2 with a 1.78 GAA, .936 save percentage and five shutouts. He was the winning goaltender in 11 of the Wild's 12 consecutive road victories that tied the 2005-06 Red Wings for the longest such run in league history.

Dubnyk was unavailable for comment before Game 5 on Friday, but he said earlier this week, "It's crazy to think I was back in Arizona to start and now have a picture on the side of [Xcel Energy Center]."

The Wild's Niklas Backstrom was a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2009.

Incidentally, Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice said Friday that Yeo should be a front-runner for the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year.

"For two months aside from the mumps and all the injuries he had, that's what you were reading out of there — 'We made the playoffs last year, we're better than this, this is a disgrace, this is a crime, it's unacceptable,' — that is an animal to deal with that's very hard to contain. And he did a masterful job of that. Yes, the goalie came in and changed, but the team was prepared to accept that change, and off they went. The run that he went on in our division, in our conference … was spectacular. I mean, that was a special piece of coaching, from a coach's point of view."