NHL Three Stars: Wild crush Habs; Lightning break losing streak
No. 1 Star: Eric Staal, Minnesota Wild
Staal scored one goal and added two assists in his team’s 7-1 drubbing of the Montreal Canadiens. The 32-year-old Staal has enjoyed a nice bounce-back season with 38 points in 40 games after he had 39 points in 83 games last season. Staal has 20 points in his last 14 games for the surging Wild.
No. 2 Star: Ondrej Palat, Tampa Bay Lightning
Palat scored two goals and added an assist to give the Lightning a much-needed 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The victory by Tampa broke a four-game losing streak and pushed their record to 20-19-4. Palat’s points snapped a personal three-game scoreless stretch. He has 21 points in 38 games this season.
No. 3 Star: Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators
The 21-year-old Finnish netminder continued his impressive play for the Predators, stopping 35 of 36 shots on goal in a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Saros holds a 1.25 goal-against average and .957 save percentage in eight starts this season.
Honorable Mention: Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl scored the overtime winner and added an assist in a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. … Oilers captain Connor McDavid notched two assists. … Edmonton forward Patrick Maroon scored his 17th goal of the season. … Devils forward Taylor Hall notched an assist in his first game at the Oilers. … Devils forward Travis Zajac and defenseman Steven Santini each scored a goal. … Anaheim Ducks forwards Ryan Kesler and Rickard Rakell both scored their 17th goals of the season in a 4-1 win at the Colorado Avalanche. Rakell also added an assist. … Ducks forward Corey Perry scored his eighth goal of the season. … Anaheim goaltender John Gibson stopped 33 of 34 shots on goal. … Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler notched an assist and held a plus-2 rating in 24:45 of action. … Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon scored his 11th goal of the season. … Dallas Stars forward Patrick Eaves scored his 15th goal of the season in a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings. … Dallas defensemen John Klingberg and Stephen Johns each scored a goal. … Stars goaltender Antti Niemi stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal. … Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg scored a goal and added an assist. … Wild defenseman Ryan Suter scored a goal and added an assist. … Minnesota blue liner Matt Dumba notched three assists. … Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon picked up two assists. … Minnesota forward Nino Niederreiter scored two goals. … Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped 20 of 21 Montreal shots on goal. … Nashville forward Filip Forsberg scored his 10th goal of the season. … Nashville forward Austin Watson scored a goal. … Bruins defenseman Torey Krug scored his third goal of the season. … Tampa goaltender Ben Bishop stopped 24 of 26 shots on goal. … Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov scored his 17th goal of the season. … Tampa forward Jonathan Drouin notched an assist. … Sabres forward Evander Kane scored his 11th goal of the season. … Buffalo forward Matt Moulson scored his ninth goal of the year. … Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson notched two assists in his team’s 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. … Ottawa goaltender Mike Condon stopped 29 of 30 shots on goal in the victory. … Senators forward Bobby Ryan scored his eighth goal of the season. … Forwards Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman each scored a goal for the Senators. … Penguins forward Conor Sheary scored his team’s only goal. … Flyers forward Claude Giroux scored the shootout winner in his team’s 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Giroux also notched an assist. … Flyers forward Sean Couturier scored a goal and added an assist. … Philadelphia forward Brayden Schenn scored his 14th goal of the season. … Vancouver forward Brandon Sutter scored a goal and added an assist. … Canucks forward Jayson Megna notched two assists and was a plus-3. … Vancouver defenseman Troy Stecher notched two assists. … Canucks forward Markus Granlund scored two goals. … Los Angeles Kings forwards Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik each notched two assists in their team’s 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. … Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin and forward Tanner Pearson scored two goals each. … Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty notched an assist in 25:48 of action. … Kings goaltender Peter Budaj stopped 21 of 22 shots on goal.
Did you know? The Canadiens have lost two games by six-plus goals for the first time in one season since 1996-97.
Dishonorable Mention: Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek allowed four goals on 20 shots on goal. … Detroit defenseman Xavier Ouellet was a minus-3. … Canadiens goaltender Carey Price allowed seven goals on 24 shots on goal in the loss to the Wild. Over his last 10 starts, Price is 4-4-2 with a 3.35 goal-against average and .882 save percentage. … Thursday was the first time he had allowed seven goals against since March 2, 2013. … Canadiens defensemen Jeff Petry and Nathan Beaulieu were each a minus-3. … Montreal forward Chris Terry was a minus-3. … Bruins goaltenders not named Tuukka Rask fell to 1-8-2 on the season. Zane McIntyre look the loss to Nashville in relief of Rask who was injured in the first period. … Blues goaltender Jake Allen was pulled after allowing three goals on 15 shots on goal. … Flyers goaltender Steve Mason was pulled after allowing four goals on 24 shots on goal.
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