ST. PAUL, Minn — Over the last week there has been many “way-too-early” debates as to who should play for Canada in next year’s Olympic in Vancouver.

   In Finland, a big Olympic question is, “Who is our best goaltender?”

   Tonight the top two Finnish goalkeepers again face each other as the Flames start a 2-game road game here against the Wild.

   The Flames’ Miikka Kiprusoff and the Wild’s Niklas Backstrom figure to be the key performers tonight.  They could also be the goalie tandem for Finland a year from now in Vancouver.

   Kiprusoff has been in top form lately facing 155 shots over the Flames last 4 games leading to team to 6 of a possible 8 points.  He’s the winningest netminder in the NHL.

   Backstrom is less known. Its just his third season in North America coming across the big pond at age 28.  He’s made giant strides in a short time. Backstrom is the only goalie among the top 5 in all 4 individual goalie categories. He’s 5th in goals against average, third in save percentage, tied for 3rd in wins and is 2nd in shutouts.  He has a shot at being #1 on all 4 lists.

   If Backstrom get the Wild into the playoffs, he could be the Vezina Trophy winner.

   The best goalie tonight could well be the winning team.  In 7 of the last 8 games between the Flames and Wild there’s has been a one goal difference in each with the Flames winning all but one including 2 this season.

   That might suggest, Kipper is the best Finnish goalie.  Tonight is another challenge.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 8:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.