The National Hockey League has announced that Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins and Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche have been selected as the three finalists for the 2013-14 Vezina Trophy that goes to the league's top goaltender.
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NHL.com reports that the three have been selected as Vezina finalists after votes by all 30 NHL general managers were counted at the end of the regular-season. Each year, the Vezina Trophy goes "to the goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at his position."
At 6-foot-7, Bishop was huge in net for the Lightning this season, shattering franchise records for goaltending while helping to guide Tampa Bay to second place in the Atlantic Division. Unfortunately for the team, Bishop (wrist) was injured during its first-round playoff matchup with the Montreal Canadiens, where the team was eventually swept.
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Bishop finished fourth in the NHL with a Lightning-record 37 wins while putting up a franchise-best .924 save percentage and adding a 2.23 goals-against average and posting five shutouts.
Rask went 36-15-6 for the Bruins this season while backstopping them to the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best team. Rask finished first in the NHL in shutouts (seven), second in save percentage (.930), fourth in goals-against average (2.04) and fifth in wins (36).
Varlamov helped the Avalanche clinch the Central Division crown with a franchise-record and NHL-best 41 wins and his 1,867 saves led the NHL. The Avalanche net-minder went 41-14-6 with a 2.41 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage this season.
Sports World News Prediction: Each one of these superb goaltenders deserves the nod as Bishop set all kinds of franchise records and was great down the stretch for the Lightning and Varlamov led the league in wins and took franchise records from Patrick Roy of all people, but at the end of the day Rask was amazing this season and finished in the Top 5 in every major goaltending category while backstopping his team to the Presidents' Trophy.
The Pick: Rask wins the Vezina
The winner will be announced Tuesday, June 24, during the 2014 NHL Awards from Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.
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