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Did Devils goaltender Cory Schneider have a Vezina Trophy caliber season? (Saed Hindash | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

By mid-March it had long become clear that the Devils were not going to come back and claim a playoff spot. While they were still mathematically alive, they were too far behind for any realistic chance.

But Cory Schneider was still in the running for the Vezina Trophy at that point.

Schneider had a 2.16 goals-against average and .929 save percentage on the morning of March 21. Those figures would not have been good enough to beat Montreal's Carey Price, the overwhelming favorite to win the Vezina, but he was right there with eventual finalists Devan Dubnyk and Pekka Rinne.

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It was an 0-5-2 finish, a span in which Schneider had a 3.10 GAA despite a very good .925 save percentage, that may have taken him out of the running for the Vezina.

"With all of the stats that are out there — traditional stats like save percentage and goals-against and now they have even more advanced stats — I think at the end of the day the stat people look at most is the most basic one and that's wins," Schneider told NJ Advance Media.

"Rinne was over 40. Price was over 40. Dubnyk would have been there had he been in Minnesota the whole time. For me, I just don't know if a goalie with a .500 record with good numbers is going to get a lot of attention in the eyes of voters. Whether it's fair or not, I don't know. I take pride in winning, so I'm not sure a guy who is five or six games under .500 belongs in the top three."

Schneider finished the season with a 26-31-9 record, 2.16 GAA and .929 save percentage.

"Obviously Price from wire to wire was the best goalie in the league hands down," Schneider said. "What Dubnyk did, you don't see that very often. He had a good start in Phoenix on a not great team and what he did in Minny was just incredible to get them into the playoffs. He played 40 games in a row and what he did in the second half was harder to do.



"And Rinne had a great start. Nashville was a surprise team and did really well. He had the wins total to back it up."

Here are the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy:

Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

Price led the NHL in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933), becoming the first goaltender to pace the League in all three categories since Ed Belfour accomplished that feat with the Blackhawks in 1990-91. In doing so, the first-time Vezina finalist surpassed a 59-year-old franchise record for wins in one season.

Jacques Plante set the former mark of 42 in 1955-56 and equaled the number in 1961-62, while Ken Dryden also reached the milestone in 1975-76. Price's save percentage was the third-highest in a single season since the NHL began tracking the stat in 1976-77. He also tied for second in the NHL and set a career high with nine shutouts, the most by a Canadiens goaltender since 1976-77 (Dryden: 10).

Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild were eight points outside of a playoff spot when Dubnyk made his team debut on Jan. 15. He led the Wild to a third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Dubnyk, who set a franchise record with 38 straightstarts following his acquisition from Arizona, went 27-9-2 with a 1.78 goals-against average, .936 save percentage and five shutouts after joining the Wild. He was the winning goaltender in 11 of the Wild's 12 consecutive road wins (Feb. 18 - Apr. 9) that tied the 2005-06 Red Wings for the

longest such run in league history.

Overall, the first-time Vezina finalist finished the season second in the NHL with a 2.07 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. He also ranked in the top 10 in shutouts (t-4th,

6) and wins (t-6th; 36).

Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators

Rinne, who missed 51 games during the 2013-14 season due to hip surgery and a subsequent bacterial infection, returned to the ice this season and backstopped the Predators to their fifth 100-point season in franchise history and first playoff berth since 2012. He helped Nashville stay in the Central Division title race all season by going 34-7-2 in his

first 43 decisions, including a 15-1-1 run from Dec. 16 - Feb. 17, and finished the campaign with a 41-17-6 record in 64 appearances.

He tied for second in the NHL in wins, ranked third in goals-against average (2.18) and

was seventh in save percentage (.923). A Vezina finalist for the third time, Rinne finished second in voting in 2011 and third in 2012.

Rich Chere may be reached at rchere@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ledger_NJDevils. Find NJ.com on Facebook.