NHL Three Stars: Wild douse Flames; Atkinson tricks Chicago; Oilers shut-out Stars
No. 1 Star: Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild
Both Minnesota and Calgary are hanging on to playoff positions by their finger tips. Minnesota moved within 1-point of Chicago for the final spot in the Central in their 4-2 win over Calgary. As has been the norm since the trade, Dubnyk backstopped the Wild to victory against an always dangerous Flames team.
No. 2 Star: Cam Atkinson, Columbus Blue Jackets
Against Chicago, Atkinson netted his second career hat trick. The Jackets may be out of it, and did their best to play spoiler on the Blackhawks after putting up 4 goals in the first period, and finally winning the game 5-2. Of Atkinson's 3 goals, one was a breakaway while shorthanded, and resulted in Corey Crawford being pulled:
No. 3 Star: Richard Bachman, Edmonton Oilers
If the Oilers are supposed to be tanking, no one relayed that message to goaltender Richard Bachman. (You'd think they'd know how to do it correctly by now...) The backup-to-the-backup netminder stopped all 29 shots from Dallas, and delivered a serious blow to the Stars already slim playoff chances with the 4-0 win.
Honorable Mention: Jonas Brodin was a plus-3 against Calgary. Matt Dumba converted on the Wild's only power play opportunity. Zack Parise on a breakaway lives in the nightmares of goalies:
... Sergei Bobrovsky looked shaky early giving up 2 goals in the first to Chicago, but held on the rest of the way getting the win with 31 saves. Johnny Oduya assisted on both Blackhawks goals. For the Jackets, Cody Goloubef and Ryan Johansen recorded 2-points each. Another nightmare of goaltenders is Johansen on the breakaway:
... Jordan Eberle, Benoit Pouliot, Derek Roy, and Andrew Miller were your goal scorers for Edmonton. Now Andrew Miller, not to be confused with Drew Miller of Detroit, was playing in his fifth ever NHL game on Friday night. He had yet to score a goal until he was gifted a penalty shot in the third period. He made the most of it; top shelf, where all the booze is kept:
Did You Know?
#CBJ now with three 25-goal scorers for first time in franchise history.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) March 28, 2015
Dishonorable Mention: After giving up a fourth Minnesota goal on 35 shots, and with less than 10 minutes to go in the game, Kari Ramo was given the hook in favor of Jonas Hiller ... Brent Seabrook was minus-4 and Duncan Keith was minus-3. Corey Crawford exited the game after giving up 4 goals on 13 shots in 15:46 of the first period ... Dallas was within striking distance of Edmonton until 9:24 of the third period when the score went from 1-0 to 4-0 in a matter of seven-ish minutes.
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter!
