Friday’s Three Stars: Perry’s buzzer-beater; Wings win again
No. 1 Star: Johan Franzen, Detroit Red Wings
Johan Franzen had two powerplay goals in the first period alone as the Red Wings cruised to a 5-2 victory over the hapless Columbus Blue Jackets. He would add an assist on Valteri Filpulla's empty-netter to ice the game. The Red Wings are now one of only two undefeated teams in the NHL. The other, Washington, hosts them tomorrow night.
No. 2 Star: Loui Eriksson, Dallas Stars
Eriksson scored only 13 seconds into the Dallas Stars 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks and added an assist later on a Mike Ribeiro goal later in the frame. Then, for good measure, he dashed the Ducks' hopes of staging a third-period comeback by scoring only 1:42 into the final twenty.
No. 3 Star: Ryane Clowe, San Jose Sharks
Clowe scored in the second period, picked up the second assist on the Sharks' game-tying goal with only thirty-three seconds to go in the game, then scored the shootout winner as the Sharks toppled the Devils, 4-3. He also had a game-high six shots. However, he was 0-for-1 in the faceoff circle, so he sucks.
Honorable mention: Valtteri Filppula added a goal and three assists in the Red Wings' win. Nicklas Lidstrom had a goal and as assist. Blue Jackets' defender Aaron Johnson did too... Matt D'agostini scored the overtime goal to give the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes... David Clarkson had a goal and an assist in the Devils' loss to the Sharks, and Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton did the same for San Jose... Corey Perry's lone goal for Anaheim came with 00.1 seconds left in the second period.
Did you know? Pavel Datsyuk and Darren Helm went a combined 25-for-33 in the faceoff circle versus the Blue Jackets. Antoine Vermette went 1-for-9 against the pair. R.J. Umberger went 1-for-8. And speaking of faceoffs, Joe Thornton took 30 of them for the Sharks' tonight.
Dishonorable mention: The pairing of Francois Beauchemin and Cam Fowler were on the ice for all three Dallas Stars' goals, finishing with matching minus-3 ratings... The Devils only put 19 shots on netminder Antti Niemi, but that doesn't mean Niemi wasn't impressive:
