Sunday’s Three Stars: Oilers earn conference lead; Sens top Leafs
(Yeah, Oilers! Way to go! Congrats on the OH MY GOD IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN IN THE FRONT ROW!)
No. 1 Star: Ryan Smyth, Edmonton Oilers
The veteran scored two goals to help the Oilers improve to 6-1-1 at home, defeating the St. Louis Blues, 4-2. Smyth snapped a 1-1 tie in the second with his fourth of the season. Almost 4 minutes after Jordan Eberle's goal later in the second period, Smyth tallied on the power play, sending home a rebound for a 4-1 lead. Edmonton is leading the Western Conference on Oct. 30. Wow.
No. 2 Star: Matt Duchene, Colorado Avalanche
Duchene finally hit the back of the net again for the Avs, and when they needed it the most. The Colorado center entered the Los Angeles Kings zone with a burst of speed and fired a nasty shot high over Jonathan Quick for what would be the game-winning third-period goal in the Avs' 3-2 victory. It was his first goal since Oct. 13.
No. 3 Star: Robin Lehner, Ottawa Senators
An injury to Alex Auld and a scheduled "off day" for Craig Anderson gave Lehner the start against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he made the most of it: Making 23 saves in a confident outing, earning his first NHL victory since Jan. 13 in the Sens' 3-2 victory. Chris Neil and Colin Greening scored power-play goals; Kaspars Daugavins scored his first NHL goal for the game-winner in the third. Ottawa has won six straight.
Honorable mention: With the fate of their coach and GM potentially hanging in the balance, the Columbus Blue Jackets posted a 3-1 victory against the Anaheim Ducks. Rick Nash, Ryan Johansen and Fedor Tyutin had the goals; Bobby Ryan tallied for the Ducks. Steve Mason made 19 saves in the win for now 2-9-1 Jackets. James Wisniewski had two assists and skated 27:58. … Clarke MacArthur scored both of the Leafs' goals in the loss. … Milan Hejduk and Chuck Kobasew had the other Avs goals; Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves in the win. … Scott Parse and Anze Kopitar had the Kings goals. … David Backes and Alex Pietrangelo had the Blues goals. … Shawn Horcoff had the Oilers' other goal, on the power play in the first, and was 15-5 on faceoffs. … He took the loss, but this was a Grade A stop for Jaroslav Halak:
Did you know? Edmonton's Andy Sutton missed the game because he had an appointment to see NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan on Monday to receive a suspension for an elbow on Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog on Friday. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: Mikhail Grabovski was 2-14 on faceoffs for the Leafs. … Drew Doughty had a power-play assist, but was a minus-2. … Jonathan Quick gave up three goals on just 16 shots. … Things got a little silly for the Ducks and Jackets with four fights in the first two periods.
