Former Wheeling Goaltender Vokoun Named NHL Defensive Player Of The Week

December 5, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release

NEW YORK/TORONTO - Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun, who began his professional career in the ECHL with Wheeling, was named Defensive Player of the Week by the National Hockey League on Monday.

Vokoun is the third ECHL goaltender in a row and the fourth in the last six weeks to win the award, joining Mike Morrison of Greenville/Edmonton (Nov. 28), Curtis Sanford of Peoria/St. Louis (Nov. 21) and Manny Legace of Richmond/Detroit (Nov. 1).

The 29-year-old led the Predators to three consecutive wins with goals against of 1.30 and a save percentage of .952. After stopping all 31 shots in a 2-0 win against Calgary on Tuesday and making 19 saves in a 2-1 win against Minnesota on Thursday, Vokoun had 30 saves in a 4-3 shootout win against Philadelphia on Saturday, stopping Mike Knuble and NHL goal-scoring leader Simon Gagne in the shootout. Vokoun leads NHL goaltenders in victories and is 15-4-2 with goals against of 2.40 and save percentage of .924 in 21 games. Buffalo's Martin Biron, who played for South Carolina in the ECHL, was runner-up for the award for the second week in a row after going 3-0-0 with goals against of 2.35.

Selected by Nashville from Montreal in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft, Vokoun was 20-10-2 and ranked 18th in the ECHL with a 3.67 goals-against average in 35 regular season games for Wheeling in 1995-96. He ranked third in the ECHL with a 2.61 goals-against average while going 4-2-1 with a .903 save percentage in seven postseason games for Wheeling.

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